Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006

O melodie pentru Europa 2006 was the national final format developed by TRM in order to select Moldova's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006.

Interested artists and composers were to submit their entries to the Moldovan broadcaster from 6 January 2006 to 27 January 2006.[1] 42 entries were received, and a jury panel shortlisted 25 entries from the 42 to compete in the semi-final.[1]

The semi-final aired on 5 February 2006 at the TRM Television Studios in Chisinau, and was later broadcast on 8 February 2006.[1] 25 songs competed and 13 were selected by an "expert" jury to advance to the final.[1]

The final took place on 25 February 2006 at the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Chisinau.[1] The combination of televoting (50%) and an eight-member jury vote (50%) resulted in the three-way tie between "Made in Moldova" performed by Serj Cuzencoff, "Sing Your Song" performed by Moldstar and Alexa and "Zii lauta" performed by Geta Burlacu.[1] Under the competition's tiebreak rules, the youngest member of the jury was required to cast the deciding vote and select the winner, however, the juror abstained from voting.[1] The national final ended without selecting a winning song.

On 8 March 2006, the TRM organizing committee announced that a second national final would take place on 15 March 2006.[3] The rules of the first national final stated that if TRM was not satisfied with the quality of the songs, it possessed the right to nullify the result of the selection and choose an alternative entry.[1] As for the second national final, in the event of another tie, the youngest juror would still cast the deciding vote. Failing that, the televote winner would be declared the winner.[4]

An additional submission period for new entries was open until 14 March 2006.[3] The three songs that tied in the first national final were invited to participate, but only Serj Cuzencoff accepted the invitation while Geta Burlacu and Moldstar and Alexa declined.[5][4]

The final took place on 15 March 2006 at TRM Television Studios in Chisinau, and was hosted by Rusalina Rusu and Bogdan Dascal. Five songs competed in the second national final, and after the combination of televoting (50%) and jury voting (50%), Arsenium and Natalia Gordienko featuring Connect-R were the winners with the song "Loca".[1]