Sunday, May 29, 2011

Zdob shi Zdub: Bunǎ Dimineaţa



Judging by my Twitter feed, which I admit may not be representative of the country as a whole, it was the Moldovan entry that should have won this year's Eurovision. Certainly, Graham Norton's incredulity when the British jury and British viewers turned out to have given them a large vote proves he knows nothing.

The band with the pointy hats and the unicycle was called Zdob shi Zdub. It turns out that they also beat off strong competition to be Moldova's entry in 2005, when they finished sixth.

And, according to the Guardian, they have their fans in the British music business:
Someone who was glued to the box last Saturday was Paul Epworth, producer of Adele and Plan B. He was one of several pop figures to tweet their delight at the Moldovans' deranged genius.

"It was fantastic," he says. "It was like seeing a bizarre version of Devo in folk costumes. I just thought it was brilliant and absurd and so far removed from the slick operations of the western European entries, with all their money behind them. I loved the beautiful eccentricity of a small country like Moldova competing against the power of Russian money." He's referring to the fact that Russia's entry, Get You by Alexey Vorobyov, was written by RedOne, producer and writer for Lady Gaga.
So here is another Zdob shi Zdub song, this one from 2001. I like to think the accompanying footage from the Soviet era is bitingly satirical, but my Moldovan is a little rusty.

Still, you may be able to find out for yourself: Zdob shi Zdub have a blog and are on Twitter.

1 comment:

Phil Banting said...

The language is not Moldovan, but Romanian. The title means "Good morning", but that's as far as I could get.