Forty singers and bands have applied to take part in the national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The winner will be chosen in three stages. After the auditions of January 21, the jury will choose 14 competitors who will perform in the February 24 semifinal. Eight contestants will go through to the national final of February 25.

The list of participants will be available on the website of the national public broadcaster “Teleradio-Moldova”. The organizational committee will use the services of a jury that will consist of singers, composers, lyricists from Moldova and abroad and of public figures from different areas.

The jury members will select the competitors at the first stage. Eight contestants will be chosen at the second stage, which is the semifinal – four who will get the highest score from the jury and four who will be selected by the public by televoting. The winner of the national selection will be 50% chosen by the jury and 50% by televoting.

Contacted by IPN, coordinator of the national Eurovision project Leonid Melnic said the TV viewers will be able to vote for one or several songs from the same phone number only once.

Moldova has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest since 2004. The band “Zdob si Zdub” achieved the best result so far – sixth position. Moldova’s representative last year Lidia Isac didn’t reach the final.