"" (; "The little train") is a song by Moldovan

folk punk Folk punk (known in its early days as rogue folk) is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was popularized in the early 1980s by the Pogues in England, and by Violent Femmes in the United States. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in t ...

band

Zdob și Zdub Zdob și Zdub (; , onomatopoeia, onomatopoeic for the sound of a drum beat) is a Moldovan folk punk band, based in Chișinău. The band Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, represented Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 in Kyiv ...

and

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

musicians

Frații Advahov The Advahov Brothers (, ) are a Moldovan folk music duo, consisting of the brothers Vasile and Vitalie Advahov. The duo was founded in 2005 and is based in Chișinău. Along with Zdob și Zdub, they represented Moldova in the Eurovision Song Co ...

. The song represented Moldova in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2022 The Eurovision Song Contest 2022 was the 66th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Turin, Italy, following the country's victory at the with the song "" by Måneskin. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and h ...

Context

The song talks about an energetic and happy train ride between the capitals of

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

and

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

Chișinău Chișinău ( , , ; formerly known as Kishinev) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Moldova, largest city of Moldova. The city is Moldova's main industrial and commercial centre, and is located in the middle of the coun ...

and

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, respectively. According to the band, the music video that was released for the song was coincided with the reopening of a train route between the two cities. The song was interpreted by many as being in support of a merger between Romania and Moldova, and lyrics referring to a union were cut from the original version.

Eurovision Song Contest

Internal selection

For the 2022 contest, the Moldovan national broadcaster,

TeleRadio-Moldova TeleRadio-Moldova (TRM) is the Moldovan state-owned national radio and television broadcaster. It owns two television channels and three radio stations. TRM was admitted as a full active member of the European Broadcasting Union on 1 January 199 ...

(TRM), broadcast the event within Moldova and organised the selection process for the nation's entry. TRM confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest on 20 October 2021. Moldova has selected their entry via a national selection show between 2008 and 2020, while their entry in 2021 was selected via an internal selection. The internal selection procedure was continued for their 2022 participation following the cancellation of a planned national selection due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

restrictions. The live audition round took place on 29 January 2022 at TRM Studio 2 in

and was broadcast on

Moldova 1 Moldova 1 is the national Moldovan television channel, operated by the national public broadcaster, Teleradio-Moldova. History Moldova 1 was launched on 30 April 1958, at 7:00 pm, with a welcome speech from the society and party structures. ...

, Moldova 2 and Radio Moldova as well as online via ''trm.md'' and via TRM's Facebook and YouTube pages. The votes of an expert jury selected "" performed by

and Frații Advahov as the Moldovan entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. Entries were assessed on criteria such as voice quality and strength of the composition. The jury panel that evaluated the songs consisted of Geta Burlacu (singer, 2008 Moldovan Eurovision entrant), Vali Boghean (singer-songwriter),

Cristina Scarlat Cristina Scarlat (; born 3 March 1981) is a Moldovan pop singer. She was born in Chișinău and represented Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Eur ...

(singer, 2014 Moldovan Eurovision entrant), Victoria Cușnir (journalist) and Aliona Moon (singer, 2013 Moldovan Eurovision entrant).

At Eurovision

The 66th edition of the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

took place in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, Italy and consisted of two semi-finals on 10 May and 12 May 2022, and the grand final on 14 May 2022. On 25 January 2022, an allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. The

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

(EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. The song was drawn to perform in the first half of the first semi-final. When the EBU decided the running order for the semi-finals, Moldova was set to perform in position 9, following the entry from the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and before the entry from

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. At the end of the show, Moldova was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Moldova placed eighth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 154 points: 135 points from the televoting and 19 points from the juries. They performed a repeat of their semi-final performance during the final on 14 May. Moldova placed seventh in the final, scoring 253 points: 239 points from the televoting and 14 points from the juries.

Charts

References