Why Moldovan Eurovision entry has caused controversy linked to the war
When veteran Moldovan band Zdob și Zdub teamed up with popular folk duo the Advahov Brothers to write a song to celebrate the re-opening of the railway line between Moldova and Romania, they couldn’t have known how politically charged their performance could become – or could they?
Now the Eurovision singers, who captured the imagination of the public vote in Saturday’s final, with their upbeat, wacky performance of Trenulețul, are findingthemselvesatthecentre of a political row between the pro-russian and pro-west factions within the country.
Moldova has recently become the focus of fears that it could be next in Russia's sights. The country was part of the Soviet Union, although most people speak Romanian. Within its borders is a breakaway self-declared pro-russian republic Transnistria.
Its politics has been a longrunning battle between prorussia and pro-west, with the discussion of unification with European Union member Romania rearing its head from time to time.
Russian officials have started to parrot the narrative that Russian speakers in Moldova are facing discrimination, mirroring the narrative it peddled ahead of its invasion of Ukraine. A series of explosions in Transnistria a few weeks ago sparked speculation of unrest in the region, where Russia already has troops.
Moldova’s pro-western government led by President Maia Sandu has taken initial steps towards European Union membership. Now the Eurovision Song Contest, for which thesongwasselectedbeforethe Russian invasion of Ukraine, has seen the band – one of the biggest in the Romanianspeaking world since the 1990s – quizzed over the lyrics.
Released in December last year, it was the promotional song for the reopening of the rail connection between Moldovan capital Chișinău and Romanian capital Bucharest.
Back then, it was already criticised for seeming to promote a unification of Romania and Moldova.
Zdob și Zdub lead singer Roman Iagupov, who was born in Volgograd, Russia, and raised in Chișinău with a Moldovan mother, has insisted the song is actually about “the wild train on which musicians travel their whole lives with their songs”.