Blog Post 2
The Nation and Its Stage
The 2009 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Moscow, Russia, and the entry for Moldova for that year's contest was performed by Nelly Ciobanu. She performed her song “Hora Din Moldova”, and the lyrics were written by herself, and the music produced by Veaceslav Daniliuc. Nelly Ciobanu started her music career at the age of 19 in 1994 when she won the Morning Star competition (Eurovision.tv). Her career took off from there and eventually led her to the Eurovision stage.
As I had stated in my previous paper, the national identity of Moldova is hard to pinpoint. The heavy influence of Romania and Russia are still present not only within the country itself but how Nelly Ciobanu represented Moldova at this Eurovision. We can see the influence of Romania in the fact that Nelly Ciobanu sang mostly in Romanian but added some English so that her message would be better received by the audience. Modovans are very passionate about the language they speak within the country; Romanian is the official and the most common language, and this is our first hint that Nelly Ciobanu wanted to showcase her love for the country of Moldova. Moldova choosing this song to represent their country in during the 2009 Moscow Eurovision could have been a way to show Russia that they are their own independent country and have their own identity away from Russia.
In the very beginning of the performance, we can see a word written on her hand. Upon further research we can learn that it is the name of her daughter. Nelly Ciobanu had said that she had dedicated her Eurovision performance to her young daughter at the time who was the most important audience to her (Eurovision tv.) We can later see her wave to the camera in the performance which she might be doing for her daughter.
The lyrics, written in Romanian with some English, tell us about the wonders of Moldova, give us insight to Nelly Ciobanu wants to showcase the country, and make people want to dance. The name of the song “Hora Din Moldova” translates to the dance of Moldova. Normally, while dancing the hora, dancers make a large circle while doing different steps (Codanec.eu). Nelly Ciobanu may have wanted this to be interpreted as the people of the world are all connected. While looking at the lyrics, I noticed that she writes “the green leaf of a pea plant” near the end of the song. At first, I thought that the pea plant might have some significance to the culture of Moldova, but upon further research, many folk songs include a plant name only for the purpose of rhyming. Here we can see she added the pea plant to rhyme with “hopping” which is a dance move seen in the hora dance (Diggiloo Thrush, 2010). The backing dancers are seen throughout the whole performance dancing the hora and at one point even making a circle around Nelly. Hora Din Moldova can be described as a traditional Moldovan folk song mixed with pop. The beginning of the song starts off with Nelly Ciobanu singing in Romanian talking about how “All the mountains, all the seas All the winds are dancing the hora.” Her message was saying that all of Moldova is a family, and everyone is happy to be together. The instrumentals and type of singing is often found in Moldovan folk music. The song features lots of trumpets and trombones, which are used in traditional Moldovan folk music.
Costumes used during the contest often add more symbolism to the performance. For Nelly, they chose to have the costumes resemble traditional clothing used for ceremonies and celebrations in Moldova. There is a Romanian influence within this style as well since they share many of the same aspects. Nelly Ciobanu wore a blouse that featured floral cutouts, purple detailing, and a green corset. One could say that the flower resembles that of the rose flower of the dog rose flower both of which are common in Moldova (Sheehan, 2000, pg. 10). As for the colors featured on the blouse and skirt, there is no real significance to the colors that were chosen for the outfits Green and purple are not the national colors of Moldova, Romania or Russia. With these color choices she could have wanted to not send the message of nationalism.
Another common occurrence in the Eurovision contest is what people decided to show on the background screens to represent their songs. In the case of “Hora Din Moldova”, throughout the performance we can see a repetitive pattern on the screens. This can represent a common pattern often used in traditional clothing found in Moldova (Roman, 2014). The red and white designs can also be seen as another way that Romania and Russia have influenced the identity of Moldova since similar patterns are found in both of those countries. This kind of pattern is found all over this region of Europe. Russia, Romania, and Ukraine all have similar patterns to the one found in Moldova (Roman, 2014). We can also see a design of two people dancing in the background which can symbolize the name of the song “Dance of Moldova”. Throughout the performance red and orange lighting is used. This could be referencing the many times Nelly Ciobanu says “flames” or “fire” within the song. More so than not, this could have more meaning to symbolize the “love” for the country. These lights could also influence the audience and leave them more energized and wanting to dance. There are also green lights throughout the performance that help contrast all the red that is on stage. The camera angles used throughout this performance paired with everything happening on the background screen often lose the performers and makes it hard to focus on the performance itself.
Stereotypes and tropes are very common within the Eurovision Song Contest. We can see many of them within Nelly’s performance alone. She has a wind machine on her the whole time, making her hair and details of her outfit blow in the wind. She uses the trope of bright outfits and being dressed mostly in white to help her stand out against her dark background screens. She also uses the tropes of having all male background dancers while she is the focus. In this performance, there is a backing singer off to the side, which is another common occurrence in Eurovision. Even though he isn’t singing all the lyrics except mostly the chorus, he routinely shouts “Ho’s” and “Hey’s”, but this helps to keep the focus on Nelly, but his voice adds a lot to the performance.
Some of the things found in Nelly’s performance make it to be considered a novelty song. Ellie Chalkley defines a novelty song as “one that uses presentation, musical style or an individual talent to produce something unusual and different” (Chalkley, 2017). While many might look at this performance and not consider it to be a novelty song, if we look at it in the context of Eurovision it is. Hora Din Moldova uses many of the qualities of a novelty song that Chalkley says it needs to be considered one. One, Nelly Ciobanu is singing a song about something other than love or heartbreak. Although it is about the love of her country it is not a “love” song in sense of relationship love. Two, Nelly sings her songs mostly in her native language. This is rare to see in the Eurovision contest, and this aspect of the song makes it more enjoyable and convincing that Nelly really does love her country. With this performance still being in the early years of Moldova performing at Eurovision, this was a way for Nelly to create an image for Moldova on the international level. Since Nelly used many aspects in her performance that were both similar and different to the surrounding countries, this performance allowed a wider audience to be intrigued. Showcasing the cultural similarities to Moldova’s neighboring countries, this creates a recognition of Moldova as a place filled with interesting aspects. As Pankowska stats “It has imported rather than exported cultural styles and cultural products” (Pankowska).
This performance, although at sometimes overwhelming, sends the audience viewers a clear message about the beauty of Moldova. The fun fast pasted rhythm of the song paired with the powerful voice of Nelly Ciobanu makes everyone want to get up and dance. Nelly Ciobanu singing and Romanian while showcasing the national identity of Moldova is enough to make anyone fall in love with this performance.
Word Count: 1,428
References
Bird, L. (2018, August 30). Throwback Thursday: Dancing with “Hora Din Moldova”. Escxtra.
Chalkley, E. (2017, May 2). Gimmicks, Glitter and Glam: Eurovisions’ novelty song contest.
Chalkley, E. (2017, April 21). Westerner’s Karma: Eurovision and Cultural Appropriation 101.
Hora (round dance). (n.d.).. Codanec. https://codanec.eu/cultural_treasure/hora-round-dance/
Hora Din Moldova. (2010, March 21). Hora Din Moldova. The diggiloo thrush.
Nelly Ciobanu. (2009). Eurovision.tv. https://eurovision.tv/participant/nelly-ciobanu
Reveler, D. (2009, April 24). Artist interviews. Sechuk.
Roman, K. (2014, May 30). Costume and e1mbroidery of Neamț Country, Moldova, Romania.
Folk Costume and Embroidery. http://folkcostume.blogspot.com/2014/05/costume
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Sheehan, P. (2000). Moldova. M. Cavendish. 10-11.
Sineaeva-Pankowska, N., & Pankowski, R. (n.d.). The rock group Zdob şi Zdub as an example of national identity construction. Moldova: In Search of Its Own Place in Europe, 92-102
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