Earlier this year, TRM the national broadcaster of Moldova, confirmed their participation for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. Recently, TRM have confirmed their selection process and have opened song submissions for Etapa națională 2024 with the winner going on to represent Moldova in Malmö, Sweden next May.
Etapa națională 2024
Once again, Moldova will be selecting its Eurovision entrant through a national final process. TRM has launched the submission window for Etapa națională 2024 and confirmed more details of the format and important dates for the upcoming national selection. Until December 22 at 17:00 local time, artists and composers can submit their songs through the online portal or in person at the Eurovision 2024 collection centre at the TRM studios.
As usual the standard rules apply. Only entrants over the age of the 16 may apply. No more than 3 minutes in song length and any song found to be commercially released or publicly performed before September 1 will be disqualified. Meanwhile soloists must hold Moldovan citizenship or at least 50% citizenship for a collaborative act and the selected act must be able to fund their participation from their own accounts. Withdrawal without sufficient reasoning, will result in a two-year sanction from participating in future national finals.
Between December 22-29 a panel of Moldovan and international industry experts will assess the submissions. They will shortlist acts for the live audition phase. The live auditions will take place on January 13. From there, ten acts will selected by a jury ranking each artist from 0-12. The ten acts with the highest scores will advance to the live national final on February 17. The overall winner will be selected by the combined scores of 50% jury and 50% public voting.
Although TRM have proposed a national final for February 17, the broadcaster reserves the right to announce the Eurovision 2024 representative at any phase in the process. As well as being able to invite acts, producers and composers of their own choosing.
Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest
Moldova made their Eurovision debut in 2005 with Zdob și Zdub’s ‘Boonika bate doba‘. With a successful sixth place, this was the start of things to come. Overall Moldova has participated in the contest 18 times and have reached the final on 13 occasions. As well as reaching the top 10 five times. Their best ever result came in 2017 with SunStroke Project’s energetic, ‘Hey Mamma‘ achieving third place. They have also finished second in the televote at the 2022 contest in Turin with Zdob și Zdub and Advahov Brothers’ ‘Trenulețul‘.
In Liverpool, 2012 returnee Pasha Parfeni brought Moldova yet another qualification to the final, meaning they have now qualified every year since the cancelled 2020 contest. Finishing in 5th place in the semi-final, ‘Soarele și luna’ finished in 18th place in the final with 96 points.
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