Sunstroke Project is a duo of male Moldovan musicians formed in 2007 who specialize in electro-house music. The group consists of singer Sergei Yalovitsky and saxophonist Sergey Stepanov.
They are best known for representing their country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo, teaming up with Olia Tira with the song Run Away. The song finished in 22nd place, but earned Stepanov the nickname of "Epic Sax Guy" when a 10-hour loop video of his sax solo in the song went viral on YouTube.
The group entered the Moldovan heat in 2015 with two songs and made it to the national final with the song "Day After Day", a collaboration with DJ Michael Ra. They finished third behind eventual winner Eduard Romanyuta.
They made their return to the contest representing Moldova at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Kiev with the song Hey Mamma. The trio finished in 3rd place in the final, Moldova's best finish to date.
Violinist Anton Ragoza, who was part of both of Sunstroke Project's Eurovision appearances, left the group in 2019. He formed a new duo called Carnival Brain, making it to the final of Etapa Naţională 2025 together with Bacho.
Sergey Stepanov was the spokesperson for Moldova in the 2021 contest in Rotterdam, replaying the sax solo during his segment.
The group entered Etapa Națională 2023, the national selection for the Moldovan entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, with the song "Yummy Mommy". They placed first in the live audition round, resulting in them advancing to the final. They finished in 2nd place behind their former bandmate Pasha Parfeny.
Trivia[]
- While Anton Ragoza and Sergey Stepanov were serving in the army together, Stepanov suffered sunstroke out in the field, which is how Ragoza came up with the name for the group.