Who Killed the Moldovan Eurovision Finals?

Political Intrigue! Technology Buzzwords! Conspiratorial Thinking! Graphs!

I know the last week or so was a tough time for a lot of folks in my communities, and I too have spent a good deal of time processing. We live in challenging times of transition, and this takes a toll as we try to make sense of the new world around us. That’s what today’s newsletter is about: developing an understanding of what’s happened so we can plan for the future.

Of course, the news I am talking about is Moldova’s surprising withdrawal from Eurovision!¹ An unexpected and mostly unprecedented choice that left 12 announced finalists just kind of hanging there. And when I say I’ve spent time “processing”, I mean I created a data pipeline to process ~500 audio files of past Moldovan song entries to analyze musical and lyrical trends. (In my head this was something I could do in a few hours, but wow did it ever take longer than that!)

For those of you who don’t follow the qualifying round for regional finalist competitions, or event haven’t heard of Eurovision before, here’s a brief pri…