The Eurovision Song Contest is not something I would normally pay attention to, but these are not normal times. This year the money was always on Ukraine to win, and rightly so. A surprise was the UK coming second after a disastrous run in recent years (a positive result possibly also partially connected, albeit obliquely, with the situation in Ukraine). However, another song caught my eye, and while it was not the Romanian one, there is a clear connection to Romania.
Zdob şi Zdub and the Advahov Brothers
performed the Moldovan entry Trenulețul
(The Train). It was not written for the contest but was
originally released in December 2021 as a promotion to celebrate the reopening
of the rail connection between Chișinău and Bucharest. Ostensibly about connecting people, which is
entirely within the Eurovision ethos, it is also about the link between Moldova
and Romania. Roman Iagupov, the lead
singer of Zdob şi Zdub, has denied any overt political intent, maintaining it
is about the musician’s life, but it is difficult not to read a broader
significance into the lyrics:
Merge trenul, parcă zboară
Dintr-o țară-n altă țară
Merge și nu poate pricepe
Care țară? Unde-ncepe?
Țară veche, țară nouă
Parcă-i una, parcă-s două
Ba aparte, ba-mpreună
Parcă-s două, parcă-i una
The train’s going, it’s like it’s flying
From one country to another
It is going but can’t understand
Which country? Where do you start?
Old country, new country
It’s like one, it’s like two
Separately, together
It’s like two, it’s like one
It isn’t only the train that finds the
border arbitrary. Despite Iagupov’s
assertion to the contrary, perhaps made in order not to fall foul of the
ostensible Eurovision ban on political content, the song can clearly be seen to
emphasise the common heritage of Romania and Moldova, symbolised both by the
railway and by the amusing appearance in the promotional video of a carpet
featuring the portrait of Stephen the Great, a hero in both countries. It also combines past and present musically
in its style and with the refrain – sung in English – of ‘Hey ho! Let’s go!
Folklore and Rock’n’roll’, emphasising both local tradition and a
western-leaning (in these times meaning anti-Russian) focus; as the words say,
‘the train’s route is East to West.’
Jauntily upbeat and very funny as it is,
it takes little effort to see that the Moldovan song reflects unhappiness with
Russia’s behaviour, especially as there have been hints Moldova might be in its
sights, after the possible annexation of the pro-Russian breakaway region of
Transnistria to create a new front from which to attack Odesa. Russian propaganda, not noted for its
subtlety, has been making the preposterous claim that Moldova, Ukraine and
Romania are planning to invade Transnistria, as if those countries haven’t got
enough to think about. There have been
false flag explosions in Transnistria (which hosts Russian ‘peacekeepers’)
blamed by Tiraspol on Ukraine. Meanwhile,
the Kremlin has trotted out the familiar line about the Russian population in
Moldova being ‘oppressed’, an assertion previously used as a pretext for
interference. Any timetable to take over
Transnistria and then possibly Moldova has been slowed, if not derailed, by the
mixture of Ukrainian fortitude and Russian ineptitude witnessed in recent
months, but the danger has not completely receded and there are still concerns
in Moldova about Russia’s intentions.
So what of the Romanian effort in this
year’s contest? Performed by someone who
goes by the corporate-sounding name WRS, it’s enjoyably light and poppy, and
will certainly get the guests out on the dancefloor at a wedding. But it is bland, with no national character I
could detect, and is mostly sung in English, with a chorus in Spanish for some
reason. Trenulețul,
by contrast full of character, is actually more Romanian than the Romanian one,
which says much about Moldovan identity and aspirations.
In the event, Moldova finished a
respectable seventh, with 253 points, reflecting Zdob şi Zdub and the Advahov
Brothers’ ability to combine a serious theme with entertainingly energetic
music (Romania came in eighteenth, with 65 points). It may be that an unintended consequence of
the Russian invasion of Ukraine, among a number, will be unification between
Romania and Moldova: if the Moldovan Eurovision song is anything to go by, the
train has already left the station.
