A transatlantic sandstorm has been blowing for the past 24 hours or so. At one end is Moldova’s Anna Odobescu in Tel Aviv. On Monday, she had a first rehearsal centred around some impressive sand art. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, we have a rather peeved Mika Newton — Ukraine’s Eurovision 2011 singer and the first performer to bring sand art to the contest.

Caught in the middle is Kseniya Simonova, the sand artist and common link between both performers. And the America’s Got Talent: The Champions bronze medalist wants to clear some things up.

Writing on her official YouTube channel, the Ukrainian reveals that, contrary to popular belief, the creative in the “Stay” stageshow is actually snow art not sand art. Apparently, this is more complicated and requires extra work.

Furthermore, it wasn’t a case of the Moldovan delegation seeing Ukraine’s eight-year-old entry and thinking “we’ll have a bit of that”! According to Kseniya, it was she who approached Anna. The O melodie pentru Europa winner was suitably impressed by the pitch and wasted no time in recruiting Simonova for #TeamMoldova.

Kseniya Simonova statement re Moldova Eurovision 2019

Yes! I am back! To this amazing stage and great festival called Eurovision Song Contect [sic]!

How it happened? I was dreaming to back for a few years, and at the same time – as an international performer – I felt that sand animation is not more enough for me. I want to create something else, something different. That’s how the SNOW ART (or snow graphic) appeared. Again only live hands and fantasy of an artist, but now it is more complicated and requires much more work.

I proposed my snow fantasy to Anna, who I consider one of the strongest voices of Eurovision, and was proud and happy to be invited to do her staging act as #TeamMoldova. It had to be a theater, not a mapping, or computer graphics, it is live, magic and… snowy! Yes, we indeed brought some winter breath in hot Tel Aviv! Moldova is a very relative country to me, it is a Motherland of my husband and producer, I come there very ofthen [sic], our big family lives there. So, I am proud and honored to be a part of #TeamMoldova!

See you in semi-final 2, on May 16th! Vote for #Moldova!

#TeamStay

Mika Newton has her final say

Yesterday, Mika Newton shared her thoughts on Moldova’s stage show with her Instagram followers. You can read all of that here. But long story short, she wasn’t best impressed.

Today, she had more to say, this time via a text update.

Dear Eurovision fans! Let’s make it clear cuz I’m tired of waking up to so many messages about Moldova’s entry this year. The only reason why I made a story about it was because so many people were asking what my thoughts were.

I didn’t even know Eurovision was on!

I’m living my happy life in America and I don’t watch it. So I wasn’t the one who started to compare myself to her, because I didn’t even know Anna exists.

Newton continues by touching on her previous — and perfectly logical — confirmation that she didn’t invent sand art. She does, however, assert that she was the first to combine both sand art and song.

She concludes by wishing not just luck for Anna, but also the win.

Guess what? People and journalist will compare it’s a natural thing to do when you see or hear something familiar and if someone’s gonna do it again they will say they copied Ukraine and Moldova! So please let’s be respectful to each other and wish Moldova luck and to win Eurovision 2019! Sending you all love! Let’s be kind to each other.

What do you think? Snow art or sand art? Copy or not? Let us know in the comments below.

Photo:Andres Putting (EBU) / Mika Newton