The sixteenth artist to feature in our Who Is series for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest is Natalia Gordienko from Moldova.
Natalia Gordienko was born on December 11 1987 in Chișinău and is of Ukrainian descent. As a child, she sang in her school choir, studied piano at music school, and danced in her school’s dance group for ten years. At the age of 15, she began participating in singing competitions.
In 2005, Natalia became the lead singer of the band Millenium. Later that year, the band were invited to participate in the Golden Stag Festival in Romania. In 2006, she represented Moldova alongside Arsenium and Connect-R at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song “Loca”. They placed 20th in the final.
In 2007, Natalia won New Wave 2007 in Jūrmala, Latvia. In 2009, she took part in DJ Star, despite having no prior experience as a DJ. She has released two studio albums; “Time” (2010) and “Cununa de flori” (Flower wreath – 2011).
In 2020, Natalia won the right to represent Moldova in Rotterdam after winning O Melodie Pentru Europa. She was to perform “Prison” before the contest’s cancellation, a song composed by Dimitris Kontopoulos and Philipp Kirkorov.
At the beginning of 2021, Moldovan broadcaster TRM confirmed that Natalia would go on to represent the country at the 2021 contest. This marked the first time since 2007 that the Moldovan entry for Eurovision had been internally selected.
Natalia will be singing “Sugar” at this year’s contest in Rotterdam and will perform in the first half of the second semi-final on May 20th.
Image source: Natalia Gordienko
Moldova debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005 when the contest was held in Kyiv, Ukraine. That year, Bulgaria also debuted in the contest and Hungary returned after a long absence since 1998. Moldova’s best result in the contest to date was the 3rd place in 2017 for Sunstroke Project with “Hey Mamma!”, this was the second time the group had represented their country in Eurovision.
