#soarele si luna

[samkuchingdraws]

Tributes to my favourite entries for

Eurovision 2023.

(from top to bottom; left to right) - Portugal: 'Ai Coração' by Mimicat - Sweden: 'Tattoo' by Loreen - Czechia: 'My Sister's Crown' by Vesna - Moldova: 'Soarele şi Luna' by Pasha Parfeni - Finland: 'Cha Cha Cha' by Käärijä

And for my top favourite: AUSTRIA with 'Who The Hell Is Edgar?' by Teya & Salena.

Some honourable mentions: - Slovenia: 'Carpe Diem' by Joker Out - France: 'Évidemment' by La Zarra - Denmark: 'Breaking My Heart' by Reiley (sad that it didn't qualify) - Belgium: 'Because Of You' by Gustaph

[akitalockwood]

I am not immune to hot druid Jesus (and neither are you, vote for Moldova!)

Bonus sketches with my favs from this year

[missfanfiktionowner]

Best flute solo since the Ukraine from last year from Moldova 🇲🇩

Plus look at Pasha going off 🕺

[memesmunsigra]

[magicaleurovision]

GUYS IF FINLAND OR MOLDOVA WIN THIS YEAR IT WILL BE THE THIRD YEAR IN A ROW THAT SINGERS SINGING IN THEIR NATIVE TONGUE WIN EUROVISION AND I’M SO READY FOR THAT

[arabela25]

Soarele și Luna, Pasha Parfeni | Moldova, Eurovision Song Contest 2023

[artbyanca]

Soarele și luna Ne-or ține cununa.

(The sun and moon Shall hold our crown

-aka the sun and moon shall marry us; aka our love will be eternal/we'll pass into eternety together for those not versed in Romanian mythology and folklore)

This piece was inspired by Pasha Parfeni's song 'Soarele și luna' that's going to represent Moldova at Eurovision this year.

[rimeah-art]

Soarele şi Luna

◇◇◇

I love this act so much!!! I hope it'll inspire more countries to send folklore inspired songs!

[crowreys-wormstache]

I finally watched Pasha's performance from 10 years ago and now I hate the whole Loreen situation even more.

Pasha came back and brought something completely new. Different genre, different language, different visuals. Those are two completely separate eurovision entries.

But Loreen? Loreen ran Euphoria through an editing program and called it a day. And she STILL won and Pasha scored worse than last time (which is a whole separate beef for me personally bc Soarele şi Luna fucks)

Fuck the jury fuck the system and fuck next years eurovision. I almost wish everyone would take a note and send the most boring generic pop song they can come up with and for the public to completely ignore all of it. But I feel like ultimately that's what the juries would like best anyway

[rbf451]

First rehearsal 30.4.2023

[borisbubbles]

Eurovision 2023: #08 & #07

08. MOLDOVA Pasha Parfeni - "Soarele și luna" 18th place

Decade rank: 28/116 [above Trenuletul, below Gjon's Tears]

"With friend and foe, we march to the battle plain

Some to seek success, others to seek fame

We play with honour, for the love of this game

So that someday, someone, somewhere will remember our name." -- Benjamin "Coach" Wade

No surprises here, I would hope. Pasha may have aged 11 years since his last appearance but he is still the same weird, irreverent stoner king he has always been. Perhaps even moreso than before, now that he's openly become the Eurovision equivalent to Coach in both style and substance.😍

Pasha delivered not more, not less, but exactly what I thought and hoped he would.

First of all, the song is just really fucking good. It sounds (very complimentary) like something you would hear in a Vidbir final. Maybe a follow-up to Kadnay's Beat of the Universe, remember that one? (Melovin's BIGGEST crime is robbing us of Kadnay, Lelya AND the minotaur girl because zomg uwu quirky theatre kid) (lmao the way I totally would have been okay with Dreamer and put it high on my 2024 list, cuz he ate that) (um, hypothetically ofc). Vidbir sound-alike is huge praise for a country that normally takes the role of a Schrödinger's qualifier and it was nice to for once know exactly what we were getting here.

REEEEEYNE N FYAAAAAAAA GAEDE MEHEEHEEEEEE

And here we get to the delivery of the song and, I mean, it's Moldova. How else are they going to tackle a song about pagan wedding ceremonies?

Moldova don't care about your stupid "wokeness". (good grief the (unselfaware) ableists freaking out about the little person. ALLOW PEOPLE MAKE A LIVING THE WAY THEY WISH TO, GOOD GRIEF. Dwarfism is not a cognitive disability, they have full agency to work in the entertainment industry. Stop behaving like they need you to emancipate against "the oppressive straight white cismale".)

Moldova don't care about trifles such as appearing "competent" to your insipid juries.

MOLDOVA IS REAL, always aiming fully maximize their entertainment factor for the lowest possible cost, and thank fuck they do.

Only this country could stage their performer as karate-chopping at a little person and make it light entertainment.

Only this country could take a quirky, Ukraine-coded electrofolk fusion and stage it like a weird grotesquerie,

Only this country could bring irreverence with such unerring earnesty.

"Soarele si luna" was a yet another solid showcase of what Moldova excell at, raw intuitive entertainment with no strings attached. Of course, we're in 2023 and being fun doesn't matter in the overal rankings. The least I can do in those cases is give a high spot to those who've been paid dirt the most.~

---------------------------------

07. LITHUANIA Monika Linkyte - "Stay" 11th place

Decade ranking: 25/116 [Above Stefania (Last Dance), below Sam Ryder]

HOORAY FOR YET ANOTHER YEAR OF LITHUANIA AT THE TOP OF MY BALTIC SISTER RANKING~

(enjoy it for the moment lithuanian readers, because a certain song about narcotics is threatening to take that crown away in 2024...x)

We have finally reached a point where the placements on my ranking more or less match the scoreboard, praise hallelujah. Of the robbed outsiders only Joker Out remain, and they're here to stay. :dramatic cymbal:

Speaking of both Outsiders and Stay, Lithuania were also kind of an outsider at first. After Monika beat Ruta Mur in PiN, I didn't think they would come close to a top 10 - clearly So Low was The Choice, Right? I honestly I don't know if I can feel that way any more. "Stay" aged really well. Ruta is an icon, but she did not have the Monika's secret weapon. She did not have -

ČIŪTOOO TŪŪŪTOOO

ČIŪTOOO TŪŪŪTOOO

ČIŪTOOO TŪŪŪTOOO

And what is "Stay" if not čūitooooo tūūūtoooo. Like legit, those two words, that's ALL it took. Those two words, that mantra, repeated over and over and over again, is what endeared her to me and juries (this is Lithuania. LITHUANIA. and juries liked them.).

Adding more čiūto tūto such a simple, elegant tweak, but one that Monika masterfully delivered. The hook is as strong as steel, but it is her charisma and her harmonies with the gospel choir which bent it into pure wholesomeness.

"Stay" is not the strongest composition, but it was an effective one. What it did exceptionally well was deliver the home comforts. The song is blanket, a fleece, a cuddle. It's the musical equivalent to eating a hearty meal by a lit fireplace, leaning against the warm body of your beau or belle. It is the spirit of Nature Is Healing in music form. It is a mental health balm covered by a mantle čiūto tūto. Lithuania earned their spot on the left side of the scoreboard and that's about as positive a surprise we're gonna get with these darksided results.

THE RANKING

[lobeliamaximoff]

ok I need their collab now

[hoochieblues]

I love Eurovision season because I always learn things. This year, it's Moldovan-Romanian folklore.

Moldova's entry, Soarele și Luna, is heavily influenced by Miorița, a poem/ballad/pillar of Romanian-old Moldavian folklore that goes back to the 1700s in its written form but probably goes back earlier.

Balada Miorița tells the story of three shepherds: a Moldovan, and a Wallachian and a Transylvanian who, jealous of the Moldovan, conspire to kill him.

The Moldovan's prized sheep Miorița (lit. little ewe), warns him - but the shepherd doesn't plan to fight back or escape. (Presumably bc shepherding in the Carpathians traditionally involved transhumance and living outdoors for months so... where's he gonna go?)

Instead, the shepherd asks Miorița to hide his death from the other sheep - and from his family - and to tell them instead that he went into the forest to marry a princess, with the sun, moon, and mountains standing as witnesses:

Soarele şi luna / Mi-au ţinut cununa. [...] Preoţi, munţii mari. The Sun and Moon came down / to hold my wedding crown [...] The priests were the mountains high

(note: I'm working from some really sketchy translations; very open to better resources pls.)

Anyway, the description of the wedding is not only beautiful, but a fantastic allegory for the shepherd accepting death, laying down with his fate and embracing it instead of showing fear. Reclaiming agency to protect the people he loves (and redefine his own memory) in the face of an existential threat.

Wildly out of my depth at the point I'm reading about the role the story - and particularly the symbolism/iconography of the lone shepherd - played in Romanian independence, but I'm pretty sure it was a thing. Likewise, the choice of this material as a starting point for Moldova's ESC entry is very interesting to me.

Moldova's 2022 offering, Trenuleţul, used a train as an allegory for a pro-unification message (for.. obvious geopolitical reasons, in addition to the strong pan-Balkan cultural ones detailed in the song):

Pleacă trenul! Unde eşti? Chişinău – București. The train's route is East to West Chisinau to Bucharest!

Idk if I'm now overthinking it too much (I got excited and I thought it was neat, okay?) but I just feel like the cultural overlap, the defiance and the energy of Pasha Parfeni's performance carries more symbolism than the entry is getting credit for. Unsurprising, given this is also the year of Croatian art rock political commentary via drag generalissimos and tractor-based analogies, but still.

Either way, I learned something new and found a new thing to read, and I thought it was beautiful. And that made me want to share. So... enjoy?

Iar tu de omor Să nu le spui lor. Să le spui curat Că m-am însurat Cu-o mândră crăiasă, A lumii mireasă; Că la nunta mea A căzut o stea; Soarele şi luna Mi-au ţinut cununa. Brazi şi paltinaşi I-am avut nuntaşi, Preoţi, munţii mari,

Of how I met my death, Tell them not a breath; Say I could not tarry, I have gone to marry A princess – my bride Is the whole world’s pride. At my wedding, tell How a bright star fell, Sun and moon came down To hold my bridal crown, Firs and maple trees Were my guests; my priests Were the mountains high;

(x) (x)

[mithriel-of-mithlond]

Moldova qualifying to the finals this year is a revenge for Fulenn not making it last year.

[theladysilvermoon]

I've found the overall theme of Eurovision 2023 - Queens and Crowns:

Alessandra from Norway - Queen of Kings

Vesna from Chech Republic - My Sister's Crown

Iru from Georgia - Echo

Pasha from Moldova - soarele si luna

And of course Loreen from Sweden- the Queen of Eurovision.

[hola-mi-bebebe]

very glad to see that Hozier has blessed esc with his presence this year