President Igor Dodon on May 17 handed over state awards to the members and producer of the band SunStroke Project, which this year archived the best result for Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest so far, IPN reports.

The awards were conferred for prodigious creative work, results achieved at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 and sustainable contribution to promoting a favorable image of the Republic of Moldova abroad. Vocalist Sergey Yalovitskii, instrumentalist Anton Ragoza and instrumentalist Sergey Stepanov were conferred the State Order. Impresario-producer Dmitry Sergeev was awarded the medal “Civic Merit”.

“The emotions we all experienced last weekend, in the final of this contest, are what the citizens of the Republic of Moldova missed during many years. I’m convinced that most of the people, thank to these lads, were proud of our county. Our singers did more than some ambassadors did during their whole professional activity. They raised the image of the Republic of Moldova at the highest level,” stated President Dodon.

SunStroke Project ranked third in the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, achieving the best result in the 12-year Eurovision participation history of Moldova, with 374 points. In 2005, the band Zdob si Zdub finished sixth.