In our aftermath of the Eurovision Song Contest we have reached the top 3 of the contest in Kiev. And Moldova booked a podium place for the first time in their history. Something that gave Sunstroke Project an “Order of Honor” in their country.
The fact that – for the first time since 2013 – Moldova would make it to the grand final, was very certain from the start. ‘Hey Mamma’ was a breath of fresh air and pure fun, already in the Moldovan final. But that it would qualify as number two in a strong semi final… No one would have expected that!
At their debut, in Kiev 2005, Moldova good their best result ever. But since also the jury rewarded Sunstroke Project this time around (they did not in 2010), they were able to even top that result. The Epic Sax Guy went viral again.
The Aftermath
Three years in a row, Moldova did not qualify for the final. But despite low budget, the nation kept their head up high and kept on trying. SunStroke Project got the 3rd place (374 votes) in the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 held in Kyiv, Ukraine. It was the highest position ever obtained by Moldova since 2005.
Therefore, on May 17th, the President of Moldova, Igor Dodon, awarded the members of SunStroke Project band for their achievement. Dodon thanked the members for giving a good image to Moldova, saying that they did more than some ambassadors in their entire diplomatic activity. Sergey Yalowitzky, Anton Ragoza and Sergey Stepanov were awarded with the “Order of Honor”, while their producer, Dmitry Sergeyev, was awarded the medal of “Civic Merit”.
Before that honour, the Moldovan three-piece were invited by Russia’s Channel One to appear on a show to discuss their third place in Kiev. The show, called “Let Them Talk” and hosted by Andrey Malakhov, also featured banned Russian representative Julia Samoylova. Frontman Sergey Ialovitsky was building bridges and stole the show when he kissed Julia Samoylova’s hand upon hearing that she would be the automatic representative of Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon next year.
Smart enough, the group refrained from making any political comments during the heavily political show. We are curious to know how things will unfold from here, as the Reference Group of the EBU will still judge if and which penalty’s will be taken against Ukraine and Russia for the soap around Julia this year… Moldova will definitely be there in Portugal next year and try to do even better than this year. Which is one tough act to follow!