Prior to the 2019 Contest, Moldova had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fourteen times since its first entry in 2005. The nation's best placing in the contest was third, which it achieved in 2017 with the song "Hey Mamma!" performed by SunStroke Project. To this point, Moldova have achieved another three top-ten placings at the contest, with Zdob și Zdub placing sixth with "Bunica bate toba" in 2005, Natalia Barbu placing tenth in 2007 with "Fight" and DoReDoS in 2018 performing "My Lucky Day", also placing tenth. In 2018, Moldova was represented by DoReDoS with the song "My Lucky Day". The country placed 10th in the final with 209 points. For the 2019 Contest, the Moldovan national broadcaster, TeleRadio-Moldova, broadcast the event within Moldova and organise the selection process for the nation's entry.
Before Eurovision
''O melodie pentru Europa 2019''
O melodie pentru Europa 2019 is the national final format developed by TRM in order to select Moldova's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019.
Competing entries
Interested artists and composers had until 18 January 2019 to submit their entries to the Moldovan broadcaster. On 21 January 2019 it was announced that 28 entries were submitted to the national selection. On 2 February 2019, the jury selected 10 songs to compete in the national final.
Final
The final took place on 2 March 2019 at the TRM Studio 2 in Chișinău, hosted by Elena Bancila, Iurie Gologan and Doina Stimpovschii. Ten songs competed and the winner was selected based on the combination of a public televote and the votes of an expert jury. The jury that voted in the final included Anatol Chiriac, Ilona Stepan, Eugen Damaschin, Andrei Tostogan, Iurie Mahovici, Bruno and Nelly Ciobanu. "Stay" performed by Anna Odobescu was selected as the winner.
At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union 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. On 28 January 2019, a special 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. Moldova was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 16 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show. Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Moldova was set to perform in position 3, following the entry from Ireland and preceding the entry from Switzerland.
Semi-final
Moldova performed third in the second semi-final, following the entry from Ireland and preceding the entry from Switzerland. At the end of the show, Moldova was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Moldova placed twelfth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 85 points: 27 points from the televoting and 58 points from the juries. With the old voting system, Moldova would have ranked 13th with 32 points.
Voting
Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.
Points awarded to Moldova
Points awarded by Moldova
Split voting results
The following five members comprised the Moldovan jury:
