„At the current edition of the Eurovision Song Contest won the esthetic of ugliness, and in this context, Moldova’s chances dropped to minimum”, the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Artur Cozma, stated about this on Wednesday. According to him, it is a „subjective” contest, and Moldova was placed among the last not because of our singers. „Arsenium has fame, and Natalia Gordienco has a special voice and the choreography was very good. Due to this, the selection commission hoped that Moldova will be placed among the firsts, but it did not happen because of subjective reasons,” the minister noted. At the same time, Cozma admits that one of the reasons of the Moldova’s failure at Eurovision also could be the fact that the presented song was not promoted in other countries. He said that further the singer selection criteria of this contest might be changed. „Every country elects its representatives to Eurovision on its own criteria, that is why it should not exist any pretension towards this procedure,” the minister underlined. At the same time he concluded „Only at this point have we realized the true value of the band „Zdob si Zdub”, which won the 6-th place the last year”. After the government’s meeting, the Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev mentioned that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism should take more seriously the singers’ selection for the Eurovision Contest in order to promote Moldova’s image. Tarlev considers that Moldova’s results at this contest are due, especially, to non-promotion of the song. Arsenium, Natalia Gordienco and Connect-R, representing Moldova at the Eurovision International Song Contest, won the 20-th place out of 24, with the song „Loca”. Previously, many artists criticized very seriously the performance of RM representatives to Eurovision. The Composer Marian Starcea termed it a „total fiasco”, mentioning that the organizers of the national pre-selection are guilty of this, which committed many violations of the regulation. The members of the band „Zdob si Zdub”, who guaranteed for Moldova a „direct ticket” to finals, noted that this year’s performance was „compromised”, listing among the causes the bad organization of the national contest, financial problems, as well as total apathy of authorities regarding the winners of the national stage up to the international contest.