For the first time in the 12 year history of the national music contest-festival for children and youth “Steaua Chisinaului”, the grand prize and the trophy for the youth section went to a male singer, Victor Balan from Rabnita. The director of the festival, Traian Vasilcau, told for Info-Prim Neo, that the jury was impressed by the remarkable performingqualities of Victor Balan, granting him with the grand prize and the trophy of the festival. The First Prize was shared by Boris Coval and Oleg Herescu, the II prize was handed to Pavel Parfeni and Marina Putintica form Calarasi, and the III prize – to Irina Vasilcov. Special prizes were handed to Lucia Bejenaru, Ruxanda Calistru, Alexei Stefanco and Erica-Elizaveta Panaitova from Comrat. In the children section, the grand prize and the trophy were handed to Evelina Varlan from the capital, the I prize – to Sergiu Mata from Rabnita and to Diana Brescan, the II prize – to Gleb Glineanu and Ana-Maria Buliga, and the III prize – to Daria Hasan, Odri Barca and Nicoleta Gavrilita, with special prizes going to Livia Cazacu, Ana Patrascu and Tais Logvinenco. According to Vasilcau, the two sections were contested by 40 performers – 20 for the children section and 20 for the youth section. This year’s edition was an exceptional one, says the cited source, especially through the interpretative level showed by the male performers. All the participants sang songs that they themselves had written, from the repertoires of national and international composers, with the only condition being that the songs be performed in Romanian, regardless of the nationality of the singers. The festival took place on the 9-10 December on the stage of the National Theatre “Mihai Eminescu”.