After making a Top 10 debut in Kyiv in 2005
thanks in no small part to a drumming granny, the former Soviet
republic of Moldova saw a rapid decline in its fortunes, finishing
in the bottom five in Athens.
After having one of the most chaotic selection
processes in Eurovision history in 2006, Moldovan
broadcaster TRM decided to opt for an internal selection to choose
its entry for Helsinki and on December 14h, they announced that the
third Moldovan Eurovision entry would be the pop-rock song
"Fight" performer by Natalia Barbu.
Natalia Barbu was born in 1979 on the 22nd of August, in Balti, the north capital of Moldova.
When she was seven, her family moved to Ribnita. During the
Dniestrian War, she went to school jumping through the barricades.
Natalia also went to the musical school. Having failed to make an
initial impression on the violin she turned to her first love,
singing.
When Natalia was twelve, she seriously began
her artistic activity, but not on the professional stage,
but as a wedding entertainer. Playing violin and singing at the
same time, Natalia succeeded in making many admirers. However the
Dniestrian conflict made the Barbu family's living almost
impossible and they took refuge in Chisinau and Natalia continued
her studies in Romanian.
After graduating from the gymnasium class of
the secondary school, Natalia continued her studies in the Stefan
Neaga Music High School . She worked hard and played the violin in
a local folk music band. Her vocal talents also came to the fore
as she became a vocalist in the High School Orchestra.
Simultaneously, she was tempted to sing jazz and pop. In 1998 she
graduated from the High School, and she becomes a violinist in the
Folk Music Band Mgurel.
However her dream of performing pop music was
also being to become a reality. Natalia took part in three pop
festivals and she gained either the first place, or the Grand Prix
and the trophy. And the greatest achievement of this year was the
Grand Prix and the Trophy of the Festival "Mamaia ‘98",
Romania, and Miss Festival - Press Prize.
In 1999 Natalia tried to become a member of the
band MILLENNIUM, but she does not stay there for a long time,
because she decided she wanted a solo career. Simultaneously she
began to study at the State Conservatory "Gavriil
Muzicescu" in Chisinau. She continued to pick her trophies
from International Festivals, however she then decides to have a
career break.
Then a period of experiments began. Natalia
with a group of musicians from Trigon worked on a new album, with
a new style of jazz-folk. But the big nesw is that in this project
Natalia wrote the lyrics by herself and composed the music for the
majority of songs. Temporarily giving up stage performing Natalia
concentated on studio work, but the project was not a comercial
success.
Undeterred Natalia signed a three year
contractwith the Company Cat Music (Sony Music) from Bucharest.
Now she has recorded an album and a video clip for "My
Angel". She decided to return to her home country to submit a
track to the Moldovan Eurovision selection and the rest is
history. The two songwriters Alexandru Brasoveanu and Elena Buga
are Eurovision newcomers, having previously worked with Romanian
music acts.
"Fight" was the first song chosen for
the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest and Natalia has done some
international promotion of the song, visiting Spain and some
Balkan countries. The song has done relativly well on internet
poll, but bookmkers seem less impressed, and it's not among the
songs favoured to qualify from the semi-final.
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MOLDOVA @ EUROVISION