Moldovan public television TRM responded to Valeria Pasha’s accusations regarding the results of Etapa Națională, which put her in second place, even though she tied with Natalia Barbu, having won the televote.
TRM has confirmed that the winner of Etapa Națională and representative of Moldova in Eurovision 2024 is Natalia Barbu, despite Valeria Pasha challenging the result.
Valeria Pasha, who performed ‘Anti-Princess’ in the final, won the televote with 4771 votes – almost double that of Natalia Barbu, who came second in the public vote. However, Barbu’s song “In The Middle” won the most points from the jury, with Pasha coming second in this vote.
As a consequence of the above, they tied for first place with 22 points. While in most national finals in the event of a tie, what is done in Eurovision is followed – i.e. the public’s preference prevails, TRM decided to give the first word to the jury, thus giving the victory and representation to Natalia Barbu.
In its relevant announcement, TRM explains how the result in Etapa Națională was achieved:
“Teleradio Moldova” company mentions that in accordance with the regulations of the European Union for Radio and Television, each country is de facto represented by the public broadcaster and it is up to the exclusive discretion of the broadcaster to determine who will represent their country at the Eurovision contest and how to organize the selection .
The Regulation regarding the conduct of the national selection and the appointment of the representative was approved, it was brought to the attention of all competitors registered for the contest.
According to the provisions of the document, by registering for the competition, the contestants confirm that they agree with all the provisions of this regulation and all the conditions established by the Organizing Committee.
Following the voting procedure, the performer Natalia Barbu accumulated 12 points from the professional jury and 10 points from the viewers.
For her part, the performer Valeria Pasha obtained 10 points from the jury and 12 points from the viewers.
After establishing that both artists had accumulated the same score, the Organizing Committee made the decision, in an extraordinary meeting, to designate as the winner the contestant who obtained the highest score from the professional jury.
The decision was adopted according to the Regulation which provides that at any stage of the contest, “Teleradio-Moldova” has the right to decide whether it will organize and conduct the next stage and/or whether it will otherwise designate the representative of the Republic of Moldova at Eurovision.
The organizing committee points out that there were reasonable suspicions from the very beginning regarding televoting, as there were in previous years notifications, including public ones, from some competitors involved in the contest, about attempts to falsify this procedure.
Since last year, “Teleradio-Moldova” has created, with the help of some of its partners, a software dedicated to the Eurovision contest, so that votes can be verified.
The company verified, through its experts and specific procedures, the validity of the numbers from which Valeria Pasha received votes and found that approximately 950 votes came from phone numbers that are currently invalid.
Moreover, a certain number of votes came from 48 countries, including exotic ones – Aruba, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Indonesia or Vietnam, probably using the VPN program.
Moldova participates in the second half of the first semi-final with Natalia Barbu and the song In The Middle. Natalia Barbu returns to the competition stage, 17 years after her previous participation, when with the song Fight she brought her country to tenth place.
Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the updates!
