SunStroke Project

Members

Anton Ragoza was born ond November 28, 1986 in Tiraspol, Transnistria. He is the violinist and primary musical composer for the band. Previously he has conducted the orchestra of Chişinău and won a series of prestigious awards in the field of classical music. Anton has a wide experience in performing in bands which play in the modern electronic genre. He identified Justin Timberlake and Michael Jackson as musical inspirations.

Sergey Stepanov is the saxophonist. He was born September 3, 1984 in Tiraspol, Transnistria. He currently lives in Chisinau, Moldova. He doesn’t have an official Twitter or Facebook page. All his groups and pages are created by his fans. But there is an official page and profile of the band he is in, Sunstroke Project. His musical taste took contours on the music of such artists as David Sanborn and Eric Marienthal; and modern DJs like David Guetta, David Vendetta and Tiesto. He loves jazz, but he likes to experiment in Vocal House, pop and R&B. He met Anton Ragoza while in the army, and decided to create the band SunStroke Project. In an interview at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2010 he identified Russian saxophonist Igor Butman as musical inspiration.

Sergei Yalovitsky is the vocalist of the band. He previously worked as a singer on cruise lines. He has won various awards for singing in Moldova and Romania.

2009

They sang for the Eurovision 2009 pre-selection for Moldova, where they took the 3rd place with the hit No Crime. Nelly Ciobanu was elected to represent Moldova at the contest that year.

2010

SunStroke Project together with Olia Tira represented Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "Run Away". The final of the O melodie pentru Europa 2010 pre-selection took place in Chişinău on 6 March 2010, with the song gaining the maximum 12 points from both the jury and SMS-voting. The song reached twenty-second place in the contest which had thirty-nine entries.

2012

An entry was made for SunStroke Project and Olia Tira to represent Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the single Superman but did not make the next stage of selection.

2015

SunStroke Project attempted to represent Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. They entered two songs: "Lonely" and "Day After Day" (with Michael Ra). Both entries qualified to the semi-final from the live audition round. However, as only one song could be chosen per artist, Sunstroke Project chose "Day After Day" to ultimately move forward. After qualifying from the semi-final, they finished third in the national final.

2017

SunStroke Project attempted to represent Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 once again, with the upbeat electro-house song Hey, Mamma!. The band came in 1st place after a tight voting procedure, and will be the Moldovan representatives in the 2017 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in May 2017.

"Sunstroke" Era: Early pre-vocal releases (2007–2008)

Shortly after the band was founded in 2007, their first (and, as of 2014, only) official album, Don't word more.. was released. The album is very rare, and only a few tracks are currently known to have been a part of it. One track, "Skream", is known to be the predecessor to Scream released a few years later with Myslicky.

Pasha Parfeny Era (2008–2009)

From late 2008 to summer 2009, Moldovan vocalist Pasha Parfeny joined the band. Three singles were released during this few-month period. Each were produced by Alex Brashovean of the former Moldovan band "O-Zone."

Eurovision/Myslicky Era (2010)

"Believe" was the first new single to be released by the band with Sergei Yalovitsky as lead vocalist (A reworked In Your Eyes was the first single to be released with Yalovitsky). It was also their original entry to Moldova's national selection for Eurovision 2010 until it was withdrawn (as well as Olia Tira's entry) in favor of "Run Away", a collaboration between both artists. Along with DJ Alexei Myslicky, several other singles were produced throughout 2010. He later departed to form Offbeat Orchestra in Russia in late 2010.

Touring and Yearly Singles (2011–present)

Since 2011, Sunstroke Project has toured extensively and has worked more closely with their longtime label, Sens Music.

Other covers and collaborations

Internet phenomena

Sergey Stepanov's saxophone solo in the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest for the song "Run Away" became famous across the Internet in a meme known as "Epic Sax Guy" or "Saxroll". The remixes of his saxophone solo have millions of hits on YouTube.

In December 2010 SunStroke Project appeared on Moldovan TV programme Sare şi piper and sang a song titled "Epic Sax", named after the meme.

The phrase "Epic Sax Guys" forms part of the lyrics of the SunStroke Project's single Superman, when they unsuccessfully attempted to represent Moldova in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest.