Moldova participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 and selected their entry through a national final, O melodie pentru Europa (A song for Europe), organised by Moldovan broadcaster TRM (TeleRadio-Moldova).

The Moldovan national final, O melodie pentru Europa (A song for Europe), had two semi-finals held on 27 and 28 February 2010, followed by the final on 6 March. 30 songs competed in the two semi-finals, of which 14 progressed to the final.

TRM launched its Eurovision selection process on 15 December when the broadcaster has started accepting entries for the national final, O melodie pentru Europa (A song for Europe) with a submission deadline for 8 January. Only Moldovan artists could be accepted, or at least one vocalist in a group must be Moldovan, with no more than two foreigners in a band in total. TRM also invited foreign composers to take part in the preselection: they could either themselves find a suitable Moldovan singers for their entries or submit to TRM a demo recording for which the broadcaster would assist to find interested local performers. On 24 December TRM offered Moldovan artists who did not have a song prepared for the contest the opportunity of competing in the contest with one of 20 pre-selected songs composed by Moldovan authors but with no further information about them.

A total of 83 songs were submitted to TRM for the contest. The broadcaster selected 25 finalists from these submissions, which were announced on 16 January. Afterwards the remaining songs competed for five more places in the semi-finals through an online SMS vote between 29 January and 14 February. On 15 February these 5 qualifying acts were revealed, as well as the line-up and dates for the semi-finals and final.

Two semi-finals were held on 27 and 28 February. Each semi-final contained 15 songs, and seven acts from each semi-final were selected by a joint jury and public televote decision to qualify to the final on 6 March.

The final of O melodie pentru Europa 2010 was held on 6 March. 14 acts competed—seven qualifying semi-finalists from each semi-final—and the winner was decided by a joint jury vote and public televote.

SunStroke Project and Olia Tira performed in the first semi-final of the contest, on 25 May, as the first entry and in the final on Saturday, 29 May, in 4th position. At the final they finished on the 22nd place with 27 points.

After the Eurovision performance there was much discussion about the saxophone player Sergey Stepanov in Moldova's entry, who came to be known as 'epic sax guy'. This has led to online tribute videos being made by fans which have gone viral, one of which is ten hours long.

...
Wikipedia