This evening, Vlad Plahotniuc, the founder of Edelweiss Foundation, handed out the first prizes for the winners of the “The star of Chisinau-the star of Moldova- 2012” National Pop Music Festival.

The winners, Evelina Negru, 9 years old at “children” category, and Evelina Virlan, 19 years old, at “youth” category received 19.000 lei each from behalf of Edelweiss Foundation together with the Trophy of the Festival. The Trophy is the representation of their success in the framework of the completion.

“I have gladly accepted Edelweiss, the organization I founded, to be the sponsor of this Festival. Moreover, it is an action I personally participate in – and I do it with great pleasure, in order to support talent and performance, this being my main goal. Today I saw extremely talented children, which I am sure will have a great future if they will be supported”, said Vlad Plahotniuc to the participants of the Festival.

“The star of Chisinau-the star of Moldova- 2012” National Pop Music Festival gathered 40 talented children and young people from around Moldova, who performed in 2 categories: “Children” (8-13 years old), “Youth” (14-30 years old). The trophies of the winners represent the symbol of the open gates to Chisinau, with the star of Bethlehem.

Evelina Negru, the winner of the first prize at “Children” category mentioned: “I do admit I was overwhelmed with emotions on the stage, but my mother’s support and canto lessons that I recently took helped me enormously. I am happy that I won, taking into account the level of this contest.” During the contest the participants performed songs in Romanian language, songs of such singers as: Natalia Barbu, Nelly Ciobanu, Mihai Dolgan, Adele, Laura Pausini, Celine Dion, etc. At 2011 edition of the Festival, also sponsored by Edelweiss Foundation, Doina Bordeianu from Cojusna, Straseni region, won the first prize at “Youth” category, while the first prize at “Children” category went to Balti, being won by Valeria Engalîceva, with the stage name of Lerika.