Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024

Moldova participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Malmö, Sweden, with "In the Middle" performed by Natalia Barbu. The Moldovan broadcaster, TeleRadio-Moldova (TRM), organised the national final Etapa națională 2024 in order to select the Moldovan entry for the contest.

Background
Prior to the 2024 contest, Moldova had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eighteen times since its first entry in 2005. The nation's best placing in the contest was third, which it achieved in with the song "Hey, Mamma!" performed by SunStroke Project. To this point, Moldova had achieved another four top 10 placings at the contest: in when "Boonika bate toba" performed by Zdob și Zdub placed sixth, in  when "Fight" performed by Natalia Barbu placed tenth, in  when "My Lucky Day" performed by DoReDoS also placed tenth, and in, when Zdob și Zdub returned to compete for a third time with the song "Trenulețul", performed with the Advahov Brothers, which finished in seventh place. In, the country was represented for the second time (after ) by Pasha Parfeni, who performed the song "Soarele și luna"; the entry qualified for the final, where it ended in 18th position.

The Moldovan national broadcaster, TeleRadio-Moldova (TRM), broadcasts the event within Moldova and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Moldova selected their entry via a national selection show between 2008 and 2020, while their entry in 2021 was selected via an internal selection. A selection show was to be held in 2022 to select Moldova's entry, but it was ultimately cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions and the entry was internally selected during the audition round. In 2023, the new national final format Etapa națională was organised. TRM confirmed its intention to participate at the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest on 13 June 2023, announcing in November that Etapa națională would be held again to select its entry for 2024.

Etapa națională 2024
Etapa națională 2024 was the national final format developed by TRM in order to select Moldova's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. The event took place at the TRM Studio 1 in Chișinău and included a final held on 17 February 2024. The show is broadcast on Moldova 1 as well as online via TRM's official website trm.md, Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.md, Facebook and YouTube pages, and for the first time via the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube page.

Format
The selection took place in three stages: the received entries were first assessed by an expert committee between 22 and 26 December 2023; 32 of them (later reducing to 31) were selected to be performed at a live audition on 13 January 2024, broadcast for the first time on Moldova 1, where a jury selected eleven (originally planned to be ten) finalists by assigning each entry a score from 0 to 12; at the final, which was held on 17 February 2024, the winner was determined by a 50/50 combination of jury votes and a televote.

Competing entries
On 22 November 2023, TRM published the rules of the competition, opening a window for interested artists and composers to submit their entries until 22 December 2023. At the end of the submission period, 51 entries had been received.

On 26 December 2023, the list of the 32 artists and songs participating in the audition round was released by TRM. Among the selected competing artists was Natalia Barbu, who represented Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, as well as Denis Midone, who represented Moldova in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2012. Aliona Moon and Milla appeared on the original list released by TRM but withdrew the following day; they were followed by Vovi Robian and his band on 10 January.

The jury panel that evaluated the songs during the live auditions and selected the 11 finalists consisted of Elena Stegari (head of broadcasting at TRM), Andrei Zapșa (deputy general manager for development at TRM), Lidia Isac, Paul Gămurari (President of the Union of Composers of Moldova) and Liviu Știrbu (composer). Entries were assessed on criteria such as the melodic line, originality and interpretation of the composition.

Key: Selected for the final Entry withdrawn or disqualified

Final
The final of Etapa națională 2024 took place on 17 February 2024. 11 songs competed and the winner was selected based on the 50/50 combination of a public online vote and the votes of an expert jury. In addition to the competing entries, Romanian band Holograf performed as a guest.

Immediately following the final, runner-up Valeria Pasha, who came first with the public but lost to Barbu in the tiebreak, announced to have filed an appeal to secure "transparency" about the results. The official rules of Etapa națională did not define whether a potential tie for first place would be resolved in favour of the public or jury, only stating that the winning entry would be "the song receiving the most points". The organizing broadcaster responded that following the tie for first place, the organising committee decided that Natalia Barbu would be declared the winner. They further stated that approximately 950 votes for Valeria Pasha had come from invalid phone numbers, and that a certain number of votes had been submitted from 48 different countries, likely using VPNs.

Promotion and preparation
As part of the promotion of her participation in the contest, Barbu confirmed attended the PrePartyES event in Madrid on 30 March 2024, the London Eurovision Party on 7 April 2024, the Eurovision in Concert event in Amsterdam on 13 April 2024 and the Copenhagen Eurovision Party (Malmöhagen) on 4 May 2024. Her entry "In the Middle" was revamped ahead of the contest.

At Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 took place at the Malmö Arena in Malmö, Sweden, and consisted of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 7 and 9 May and the final on 11 May 2024. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) were required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete in the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progressed to the final. On 30 January 2024, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country would perform in; the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. Moldova was scheduled for the second half of the first semi-final. The shows' producers then decided the running order for the semi-finals; Moldova was set to perform in position 11.

In Moldova, all three shows were broadcast on Moldova 1 and Radio Moldova, with commentary provided by Angela Rudenco.

Performance
Natalia Barbu took part in technical rehearsals on 28 April and 1 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 6 and 7 May. While joined by other performers at the national final, she was alone on stage for her performance of "In the Middle" at the contest; the violin solo was retained.

Semi-final
Moldova performed in position 11, following the entry from and before the entry from. The country was not announced among the top 10 entries in the semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed, that Moldova placed 13th with 20 points.

Voting
Below is a breakdown of points awarded by and to Moldova in the first semi-final and in the final. Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting in the final vote, while the semi-final vote was based entirely on the vote of the public. The Moldovan jury consisted of Violeta Botezatu, Roman Burlaca, Paul Gamurari, Lidia Isac, who represented, and Livia Stirbu. In the first semi-final, Moldova placed 13th with 20 points, marking the country's first non-qualification to the final since. Over the course of the contest, Moldova awarded its 12 points to in the first semi-final, and to  in both the jury vote televote in the final.

The spokesperson for the Moldovan jury at the final was Doina Stimpovschi.

Detailed voting results
Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent. Each jury, and individual jury member, is required to meet a strict set of criteria regarding professional background, as well as diversity in gender and age. 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.

The following members comprised the Moldovan jury:
 * Violeta Botezatu
 * Roman Burlaca
 * Paul Gamurari
 * Lidia Isac
 * Livia Stirbu