After the chaotic process of the Moldovan live internal selection, which saw a spectrum of performers from the decent to the very bad, it seems fitting that a chaotic song ended up prevailing.

No stranger to the Eurovision scene (2005, 2011), Zdob și Zdub return for a third attempt at the contest in three decades. While their first two songs were ska-rock tracks with weird English lyrics, they’ve gone full folk this time, combining with Frații Advahov to bring an accordion, a violin, and almost no English in the lyrics of what is a fairly fast-paced song. This is at least a lot more authentic to the musical traditions of their country than their previous efforts. However, this is also the kind of music that makes me cringe. I guess I don’t have an appreciation of this kind of folk in my background.

In any case, the song, “Trenulețul”, details a train trip between the Moldovan capital of Chișinău and the Romanian capital of Bucharest. (Unfortunately for the bands, Romania and Moldova are not in the same semi-final this year.) This is, at least, firmly in the spirit of Eurovision, and I can give them a thumbs-up for writing a song which is truly European in that way. But I’m afraid I can’t go beyond that, and while others might be doing a jig or dancing together in big circles to this track, I’ll probably be off to the kitchen to fix myself another drink.