Moldova 2024: Natalia Barbu with ‘In The Middle’
Natalia Barbu narrowly clung on for victory in a tight Etapa Nationala final and returns to Eurovision after 17 years:
It was a narrow win in the end, and to be honest, the wrong choice. Hunting the televotes is Moldova's speciality at the best of times but especially now we are in the 100% televote semi final era, going with a jury deadlock breaker was a bad call. The public vote looked a fair one and a good appraisal that this just misses the mark.
The positive is there’s a lot of room for improvement on that national final performance which had the worst staging concept of any entry so far. Static, longshots, lack of focus on our lead, energy-less violin solo… This was a very poor showing in theory not only execution and I want to see an entire rethinking of the staging by the time we get to Malmo. The gimmick route that has served them so well in the past with their glow ups can't really be applied here but pace and energy or anything to bring this interest is needed. Moldova are masters at using all six people on stage and creating an atmosphere and will need to find a way to do that to give this some life.
Even then the only question to ask with Moldova this year is on qualification and it's a tough semi. Romania are absent and there’s not many Romanian diaspora countries here, except for Ireland and the UK who will already be giving bigger points to Poland and Lithuania amongst others. Ukraine is the only liable source for a 6+ score and I don't see why a casual in Lithuania, Cyprus or Luxembourg for example would ever vote for this.
Also knowing SVT's love for a pun, Natalia has royaly screwed herself here and talked her way further into a neat 8th place in the running order, pretty much throwing away their second half draw advantage. Is it too late to change title to ‘in the pimp slot’?
I have a soft spot for Moldova but this is going to be a bad year I fear and they look the least likely to qualify from the semi at this stage, including those we are yet to see. They have surprised us in the past and will need to once more.
Personal Rating: 3/10
Competitve Rating: 2/10
Early Prediction: 12th-15th in semi 1.