Moldova finishes 14th at Eurovision

Moldova’s representative at Eurovision Nelly Ciobanu ranked 14th at the 54th Eurovision Song Contest held at the Olimpiysky Arena in Moscow on May 16. Singer and violinist Alexander Rybak smashed the record for the most points awarded during the competition with a Fairytale. Iceland came second in the vote, followed by Azerbaijan which took the third place, Info-Prim Neo reports. Nelly Ciobanu sang the song “Hora din Moldova” (“Moldovan Round Dance”) at the May 14 semifinal and went through to the final. She performed the thirteenth out of 25 contenders, accompanied on the stage by four dancers from the academic pop dances group “Joc” and singer Gicu Cimbir. Moldova scored 69 points, with Romania and Portugal offering it by 12 points. Moldova has participated in the contest for the fifth time in a row. Zdob si Zdub represented Moldova in 2005 and ranked sixth. In 2006 in Athens, the duo Arsenium and Natalia Gordienco finished the 20th. Natalia Barbu ranked tenth in 2007, while last year Geta Burlacu did not qualify for the final. Romania, represented by Elena Gheorghe with the song “The Balkan Girls”, ranked 19th with 40 points. Moldova offered it 12 points. Russia finished 11th. Anastasia Prihodiko sang a song in Ukrainian, titled “Mama”. Ukraine came 12th with “Be My Valentine” sang by Svetlana Loboda. For the first time, voting in the final was split between televoting and panels of musical experts, which was supposed to reduce the incidence of predictable and neighborly votes. A total of 42 countries voted on the 25 songs. The 2009 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Moscow as Dima Bilan won the 2008 edition in Belgrade. Russia spent about US$42 million on the organization of the contest – the largest sum ever allocated for the event.