The 12th international light music contest “Twin Hearts” will bring together 56 singers from 12 countries to Chisinau. For the first time the contest will involve singers from Georgia, Lithuania and Austria. The competitors must sing a song from the repertoire of the late singers Ion and Doina Aldea-Teodorovici and a song in the language of the country they represent, IPN reports.

The pre-selection was held on October 4 and 5. It involved 75 persons aged between 10 and 40. Of the 56 selected participants, 29 will compete in the grownups category (18 from Moldova), while 27 – in the children’s category (13 from Moldova). A number of 33 competitors took part in the contest last year. The costs for organizing the festival were assessed at 1.4 million lei.

Doina Aldea-Teodorovici’s mother Eugenia Marin, who heads the public association “Twin Hearts”, told a news conference that the novelty of this year’s contest is that the first song in the grownups category will be accompanied by the orchestra “Cristofor Aldea-Teodorovici”. “This contest returns to life Doina and Ion. I cannot listen to their songs without tears in my eyes. I see them when I hear their songs,” she stated.

The contest will take place at the National Theater “Mihai Eminescu” in Chisinau on November 13 and 14, starting at 5pm. The Laureate Gala will be held at the National Palace on November 15, when Doina Aldea-Teodorovici was born. The performance starts at 6pm. Tickets to the concerts of November 13 and 14 cost 50 to 70 lei, while to the gala – 50 to 150 lei.

Ion and Doina Aldea-Teodorovici died in a road accident 49 km from Bucharest on October 30, 1992. On November 15, when the Laureate Gala of the “Twin Hearts” Festival is traditionally held, Doina Aldea-Teodorovici would have turned 56.