Photo Credit: Corinne Cumming/EBU
*The opinions expressed in this article only reflect those of the writer; they are not representative of the views of the entire Phoenix team, the EBU, Eurovision or TRM.
When Eurovision was first created, the aim was to create peace and unity through the power of music. However, 70 years later, while Eurovision has united Europe over the years, recently some countries haven’t been able to afford the costs of taking part, which is becoming a bigger problem year by year due to the sheer number of countries withdrawing.
The news that Moldova has withdrawn from Eurovision 2025 citing economic, artistic, and creative challenges has come as a shock to many. Eurovision has lost a great fan-favourite nation, leaving many fans upset. This announcement continues to raise questions about the participation fee and the costs of Eurovision as a whole.
In this article, we talk about Moldova’s national final, looking at what went right and wrong. We examine the implications of their withdrawal, how financial issues have affected multiple nations (including currently participating ones) and also suggest what countries like Moldova can do in the future.
Moldova at Eurovision 2025
Moldova was one of the last participating countries to confirm they were taking part because they were concerned about finances. However, they confirmed that their national final and auditions would go ahead as normal. On Saturday 18th January, the Etapa NaÈ›ională auditions went relatively smoothly and most of the acts performed. However, some were disqualified such as Valleria for simply arriving to the auditions too late. Ironically now, because of Moldova’s withdrawal from Eurovision, Valleria still can go to Eurovision, as at the time of writing, she is in the running to represent San Marino.
Some fans criticised the lineup for not having as many decent songs as previous years, and some were shocked at the songs that made it into the Top 12, as well as songs from artists such as Sasha Letty who had made the final before.
The Tuesday after the auditions the Moldovan broadcaster TeleRadio Moldova had announced in a press conference they would no longer continue with the contest or Eurovision 2025 altogether citing economic challenges and dissatisfaction with the selection of songs.
The Director of Moldova 1, Corneliu Durnescu said:
“The decision was not an easy one, but necessary in the current context. This year’s national selection highlighted certain challenges, including a decrease in public interest and the overall quality of the plays and artistic performances. This fact generated a negative perception among specialists and the public, underlining the need for a substantial reform in the selection process.“
What Moldova Did Right
Despite the lack of famous acts or many familiar names in the Moldovan selection, there were still some good songs which had potential such as ‘Semafoare’ by Bacho and Carnival Brain which was a fan favourite. Some even thought this could qualify for a Eurovision final but more on them later.
Royals ST was also popular with fans who thought the young duo had a cool song complete with a saxophone reminiscent of Moldova’s very own Epic Sax Guy.
The broadcaster’s YouTube stream of the auditions once again received thousands of views and the host thanked international fans for watching in English, hoping they would enjoy the show. While it’s only a small gesture, it means a lot to Eurofans to hear that their support is appreciated.
The stage they performed on, although small, was modern and compared to previous auditions, this was a major improvement and looked professional.
And, of course, no Moldova audition segment is complete without the people’s princess Tudor Bumbac, who has become the honourary Moldovan grandad of the Eurovision sphere.
How Moldova Can Improve
Unfortunately, as the director of Moldova 1 said, the reception of the songs was mostly negative from fans and the general public. One of the problems is that the broadcaster doesn’t always go through the songs submitted and remove any that aren’t right. This means you never know exactly what you’re going to get until the day. It’s happened on several occasions where people have submitted songs as a joke only for them to realise they have actually been accepted. Many countries have their submissions reviewed so that only the best of the best songs compete. I think it would be helpful for Moldova to do this in the future.
While this is one of my favourite parts of the whole National Final season, another idea is to possibly scrap the live audition round, or at least do it behind closed doors. This is something Moldova used to do when they first took part in Eurovision, and countries like Azerbaijan have done this recently. It would also save the broadcaster money if they just held a National Final.
However, one of the main objectives for the future is to regain the public interest of Eurovision in Moldova. If they go down the National Final route, they must make sure the voting system is transparent and fair. There were some complaints back in 2024 that although the results ended up in a tie for 1st place, the jury had the final say on selecting Natalia Barbu to Eurovision. Some felt that the winner Valeria Pasha, who had twice as many public votes as Natalia, should’ve gone instead. If the people’s winner doesn’t win the contest, then they will feel disappointed with the result and therefore public interest will remain low.
Alternatively, they could always select internally, which would save money on production when it comes to Eurovision. Despite Moldova’s size, there are plenty of popular musicians who are famous across Eastern Europe, such as Eva Timush. Having an established act can bring a lot of interest into the selection and fans back home would be more inclined to support them if they are familiar with the artist.
Bacho’s Sponsorship Offer
On the same day Moldova publicly announced their withdrawal, Bacho and Carnival Brain, one of the frontrunners of the auditions, claimed that his team had received a sponsorship offer that would cover the costs of travelling and accommodation to help the broadcaster and so they could still take part in Eurovision. Within his statement, he expressed his disapproval with the broadcaster TRM stating:
“We deeply regret that all artists who participated in the live auditions were labelled as low-quality artists by the TRM Director, Cornel Durnescu, publicly devaluing the creative work of each participant – which is unacceptable.“
However, TRM seemingly refused the offer, which is a shame. It’s also a shame that the artists were classed as low-quality because, for many of these artists, performing on stage in front of thousands of people is their dream, and Eurovision has always been a platform for musicians to do this. If you want to create public interest and boost the number of submissions, it’s important to support the artists and cheer them on wholeheartedly should they make it to Eurovision.
The Cost of Eurovision
Over the years, we’ve lost Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Andorra, North Macedonia, Romania and now Moldova. Many of those countries were regulars in the contest. Romania was a Eurovision powerhouse in the 2000s and 2010s. Montenegro has withdrawn several times citing financial issues. However, they have made their return for 2025. It’s important to note that Eurovision is still a popular contest across most of these countries and the contest is a way they can showcase their music and culture to the world. Where else can 160 million people listen to a single song and see their country’s name on the scoreboard?
Hungary and Turkey also withdrew in the 2010s, however, these decisions weren’t financial, but more politically motivated, or in Turkey’s case, dissatisfaction with the 50/50 jury televote split and the Big 5 rule as well where The UK, Spain, France, Italy and Germany automatically qualify for the final.
Obviously, a major production such as Eurovision is expensive meaning that the nations who take part contribute financially. The result of this is that richer nations contribute more so that it’s fairer for smaller nations to compete. If the funding was cut significantly, then it would mean we wouldn’t get the same amazing production we’re used to, so there’s a fine line in striking the right balance.
Moldova is sadly one of the poorest countries in Europe and poorer countries/broadcasters at Eurovision only have a limited amount of resources compared to broadcaster’s such as the BBC. The Director of Moldova 1 said that Moldova’s participation fee alone to take part in Eurovision was €21,486 this year. This figure doesn’t sound like a lot, but there are also costs regarding the organisation of the National Final; the production of the show; artist promotion; the team’s travel and accommodation at pre-parties and at the host city itself; stage production and technical equipment to name a few, so that figure will rise considerably when you take all things into consideration.
If you thought that Moldova’s fees were a lot, look at Ireland: their broadcaster RTÉ spent approximately €390,000 in total in 2024, with €101,090 being the participation fee, €70,000 on production, €62,000 on accommodation for the Irish delegation, and €7,000 on travel. Fans don’t always realise just how much time and effort, but also money is required to present each song at Eurovision.
Countries in the big 5, such as Spain pay the most money and have in the past spent €350,000 on their participation fee alone.
Back to Moldova, it was not uncommon for acts to have to fund a lot of the travel and staging themselves in order to reduce the broadcaster’s costs. But even though fans sometimes ridiculed Moldova for their auditions, they always found a way to take part every year, and they did well in the contest. They’ve given us so many unforgettable moments such as Epic Sax Guy in 2010 and his return in 2017. Zdob È™i Zdub in 2005, 2011 and 2022, with the latter giving Moldova a great result by finishing 2nd in the televote.
The fee has gone up in previous years but why? The rising inflation across Europe has had an impact but there is also an elephant in the room. Thanks to Russia and Belarus’s exclusion from Eurovision in the early 2020s, this has put up the price of other countries’ participation fees considerably, as Russia were one of the biggest financial contributors to the contest. However, banning Russia and Belarus from the contest was unequivocally the correct decision for the integrity of the contest. But the fewer countries that take part can mean the participation fee is higher for all countries involved.
In recent years, the contest has been hosted in the UK, Sweden and now Switzerland, which are expensive countries. Montenegro indicated that because of how expensive accommodation would be in the UK, this was a reason for their withdrawal in 2023. If a cheaper country were to win, this could have an impact, but obviously people vote for the best song to win the contest, not which country will give fans and countries a cheaper contest the year after!
The reason why the situation is becoming more uncertain is the likes of Moldova have never withdrawn from Eurovision since their debut in 2005. Likewise, when North Macedonia withdrew from Eurovision in 2023, it was their first withdrawal since their debut in 1998. With an ever-growing list of countries leaving the contest due to the same reason, how many more countries will eventually miss out on Eurovision because of financial reasons?
Some countries who take part now have already altered how they select their entrant, mostly to cut costs. Estonia’s Eesti Laul used to be a Semi-Final and a Final, but they’ve since dropped the Semi-Finals. Czechia have often cited financial concerns in their history of the contest. However, in 2025 they scrapped their National Final ESCZ and have gone internal, selecting ADONXS to be their entrant.
While there have been nations from Western Europe who have withdrawn for the same reasons, such as Andorra, this has predominantly been an issue across Central and Eastern European nations. Eastern European countries are a huge part of the contest ever since the early 1990s, when the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia broke up. Eastern European nations began to triumph more often with Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Ukraine, Greece, Finland, Serbia, Russia, and Azerbaijan all achieving their first victories in the 2000s and 2010s.
Less Eastern countries taking part can mean we lose a huge amount of diversity in music and gives us less of a chance to hear styles of music we wouldn’t normally. It also can mean the potential for Eastern countries to struggle in the contest results-wise because if a country withdraws, they’re no longer able to vote for their favourite songs as a whole country, instead being part of the ROTW vote. Some of these countries such as in The Balkans or Romania and Moldova have similar music tastes or the artists they’ve chosen are popular in that area of Europe, therefore they will vote for each other.
Moldova especially was a eurofan favourite and has been one of the more successful nations in the history of Eurovision, with multiple Top 10 finishes, a strong qualification record and a high of 3rd place in 2017.
If the number of countries decreases anymore, it almost defeats the point of having semi-finals and makes it more humiliating for the countries who do miss out.
If something isn’t done soon more countries will leave and it’ll become a contest where only the richer countries can take part and that defeats the purpose of being united by music.
Will These Countries Ever Return To Eurovision?
It’s hard to say whether these countries will return to the contest, but the head of the Moldovan delegation Daniela Crudu has said:
“This decision was not an easy one, but we assure you that it was analyzed in detail. We know that we would all have liked to organize a national final and designate the song that would represent us at the international stage. However, we are firmly convinced that this decision will boost the interest in participating in future editions. We will ensure that we return to Eurovision with force.”
This sounds promising! However, because Moldova have withdrawn after October 11th, the broadcaster will have to pay a hefty fine so this won’t help with their finances for Eurovision 2026.
North Macedonia also said they were hoping to return to Eurovision after 2023 but they haven’t as of yet. For Eurovision 2025, they laid out a budget equivalent to €32,500, but this unfortunately wasn’t enough. However, they still continue to take part in Junior Eurovision. It’s important to note that these broadcasters have to budget and organise all of their TV, sport, and radio coverage, so Eurovision isn’t always the top priority.
The Participation Fee
Countries who take part in the contest don’t have to reveal their full costs of the contest but some choose to, such as Ireland. This can make it tricky to work out how much the contest costs for each country and how the fees are calculated.
However, Twitter user @dolphin_dane had suggested that the participation fee was somewhat decided by the population of the country.
This wouldn’t be the most ideal way if so because some countries have a big population, but not as much money, therefore a system where the fee is decided by the countries’ GDP could be fairer, assuming the population is a factor on how the fee is calculated.
I do believe more should be done to help these countries come back in the future as this has been an ongoing issue for a mumber of years, and will only get worse in the future. Countries like Moldova, and North Macedonia have expressed their intention to return when they can and having them in the contest will also help lower the participation fee for all countries taking part. However, the broadcasters must be committed too. One solution could be that the richer countries could contribute a little more in order to accommodate the poorer countries, so they can pay a little less so and be more likely to afford the cost of the contest. After all, we are supposed to be united by music.
However, there have been some promising indications that things are happening to help countries. Greece have revealed that their Eurovision participation fee has dropped from €176,647 in 2024 to €143,243 in 2025, a considerable decrease (approximately 19%) in price. So if this is the same for other countries, this could help make things easier for nations to take part in the contest and bring them back in the future.
Overall while Eurovision is still one of the most watched non-sport TV shows in the world, it’s important to retain countries’ participation every year, making sure the contest is diverse and successful, and ensuring a safe environment for everyone involved.
This year, it’s goodbye to Moldova, but hopefully, in 2026 we will welcome Moldova back, and hopefully, more countries will return to Eurovision!
Will you miss Moldova at Eurovision? What did you think of their songs this year?
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