THE ARTICLE · 4 MIN
Who Epic Sax Guy is
Epic Sax Guy is Sergey Stepanov, the saxophonist of the Moldovan band SunStroke Project. The meme is his saxophone solo from Moldova’s entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo. The contest’s own page on the band puts it simply: “It was after the 2010 contest that saxophonist Sergey Stepanov became a YouTube sensation known all over the world as the Epic Sax Guy.”
Everything below comes from the contest’s official records, plus a report by SBS, the Australian broadcaster of Eurovision, from the week the band returned in 2017, and one note from the meme database Know Your Meme.
From Moldova to Eurovision: The Birth of a Meme
SunStroke Project, formed in 2008, plays a mix of violin, saxophone and dance music, in the contest’s description. In 2010 the band represented Moldova together with the singer Olia Tira, with the song “Run Away”.
- The semi-final. On Tuesday 25 May 2010, Moldova opened the first semi-final. “Run Away” scored 52 points, finished tenth and qualified for the final.
- The final. On Saturday 29 May 2010, at the Telenor Arena, “Run Away” scored 27 points and finished 22nd of 25. The contest was won by Lena, for Germany.
So the song did not do well. The saxophone did. The band’s Eurovision page says the video of Stepanov performing at the contest “went viral and has been watched millions of times”, and SBS reported in 2017 that “when their performance was first uploaded to YouTube, he became known as the ‘epic sax guy’ as the video started going viral.”
Back at Eurovision in 2017
The band did not stay a one-off. SunStroke Project, this time without Olia Tira, represented Moldova again at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Kyiv, with “Hey Mamma”. It finished second in the first semi-final and third in the final on Saturday 13 May 2017, with 374 points. Portugal’s Salvador Sobral won that year.
The contest credits the music of “Hey Mamma” to four writers, Stepanov among them, and the lyrics to Alina Galetcaia. SBS, writing in May 2017, called the saxophone “the real star of this years song contest” [sic] and reported that Stepanov and the band’s violinist, Anton Ragoza, had worked together in the army, and that the band’s name came from a sunstroke Ragoza got while working in the field with him.
“Epic” and “Ultra”: a note on names
Epic Sax Guy is the name the contest itself uses for Stepanov. It comes from the 2010 performance, and the contest kept it in 2017: its own video of the 2017 final is titled “Hey Mamma (LIVE feat. Epic Sax Guy)”.
The 2017 performance is sometimes shared as “Ultra Sax Guy”. We found that name in a fan video that set the two performances side by side, as recorded by the meme database Know Your Meme. We did not find it on the contest’s results and participant pages, in the title of its 2017 video, or in the SBS report. It is a nickname for the 2017 clip, not a second person: both clips show Stepanov.
How to trace a meme clip to its source
Epic Sax Guy is an easy case, because the event behind it keeps a public record. The same steps work for most clips that come from a broadcast:
- Find the event. A clip from a contest, a match or a televised show usually has an official results page. For Eurovision it is the contest’s own site, with every entry, running order, score and placing.
- Check the numbers there. The placing, the points and the date are the easiest details to get wrong when a clip is retold. The official page settles them.
- Match the name to the right clip. Nicknames drift: “Ultra” was a fan label for the 2017 clip, seven years after “Epic” began.
- Separate the clip from the person. A meme records a few seconds of someone’s work. For facts about the person, use what they or a reliable publication have said on the record, and leave the rest out.
For a fuller method, see how to check something online before you share it.
Sources
- Eurovision Song Contest, “Grand Final of Oslo 2010” and “First Semi-Final of Oslo 2010” (results), and “Oslo 2010” (event details), archived copies: https://web.archive.org/web/20251116031421/https://eurovision.tv/event/oslo-2010/grand-final/, https://web.archive.org/web/20251118030153/https://eurovision.tv/event/oslo-2010/first-semi-final, https://web.archive.org/web/20260107053901/https://eurovision.tv/event/oslo-2010
- Eurovision Song Contest, “Grand Final of Kyiv 2017” (results) and “Kyiv 2017” (event details), archived copies: https://web.archive.org/web/20251115191004/https://eurovision.tv/event/kyiv-2017/grand-final/, https://web.archive.org/web/20260107053901/https://eurovision.tv/event/kyiv-2017
- Eurovision Song Contest, “Sunstroke Project” (participant page), archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20251114221555/https://eurovision.tv/participant/sunstroke-project
- SBS Guide, “Everything you wanted to know about sax (But were too afraid to ask)”, SBS (14 May 2017): https://www.sbs.com.au/whats-on/article/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-sax-but-were-too-afraid-to-ask/k9ejkl8er
- Eurovision Song Contest (official YouTube channel), “Sunstroke Project - Hey Mamma (LIVE feat. Epic Sax Guy) | Moldova | Grand Final | Eurovision 2017”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWaQdHoCvYk
- Know Your Meme, “Epic Sax Guy” (entry, section “2017 Appearance”): https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/epic-sax-guy
Checked September 2026.
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