ROMANIA

New Years Eve saw Romania choose their entry for Dusseldorf in the TVR Studios inBucharest. This also doubled up as their New Year's Day celebrations. Luckily, I have TV Romania on my satellite dish so this was the first final was able to see this year :o)

Opening dance sequence. The dancers seem to be wearing Doce’s cast outs from 1982.
Ovi and Paula Selling present the show. They came second last year with their catchy tune “Playing with fire”. Shame they have not put forward another collaboration again this year.

1) Adi Cristianu- One by One
The stage is covered with a horrid green sheet (whatever for!)
Ado is joined by one backing singer and 4 dancers who seem to be dressed as funny coloured bushes. The song is a bit strange although not unpleasant. The chorus uses his falsetto range quite a lot, which he seem unconfident with, and this part of his voice certainly isn’t strong. No punch to this song at all

2) Dalma – Song for Him
Dalma seems to wearing a short wedding dress and is sitting underneath an abandoned piece of garden furniture. Oh dear. The song starts out sweet and innocent and suddenly she proclaims “Who am I kidding?” The song has a kind of Meredith Brooks “Bitch” twinge to it. Dalma’s voice is not strong and the ending is just plain, plain weird.

3) Leticia – Dreaming of you
Another a country style record. Leticia is standing on a pedestal surrounded by dry ice. The beginning of the song sounds hopeful. The background music is quite bassy and guitary and has a dream like feel to it, however a chorus consisting of “I’m dreaming of you” repeated 4 times is plain lazy. Very disappointing after an interesting start.

4) Silvia Stefanescu – I can’t breathe without you
First ballad of the night, with a bit of a rock edge. Silvia is sporting the Morticia Addams look tonight, although she actually gets away with it! The song itself is actually a bit of a grower and Silvia obviously has confidence in her song and herself and it shows. Best performance up to now, but that really isn’t that difficult.

5) Blaxy Girls – It’s so fine
Oh dear. And I thought Vanilla Ninja were annoying. These girls take it to a new level. You can also tell the singer is trying very hard to ‘do a Lena’ and talk with a funny cockney accent. Another boring chorus “It’s so fine” repeated 9 times in each chorus *yawn* This is exactly the kind of thing I’d expect at Junior Eurovision NOT normal Eurovision.

Ovi and Paula now sing a selection of their songs.

What followed this looked like the Romanian version of Mini-pops doing Eurovision classics (this is so wrong I cannot tell you…) Starting to think if I have accidentally started watching re-runs of 3,2,1…

6) Claudia Pavel – I want U to want me
This song definitely has a touch of “Bleeding Love” about it. The Backing track is quite bassy but also have a lot of fast microbeats in the background. Gets off to a bad start as Claudia shows us here vocal dexterity... out of tune. She continues the theme by screeching out the top notes in the chorus. Would be a fantastic song…. For someone who could sing it properly.

7) Laurentiu Cazan – We can change the world
A slightly more ‘mature’ performer singing a very eighties styled rock song. He seems very comfortable about the song but something isn’t quite right. The staging needs far more action as it is all very static. Furthermore he doesn’t seem very loud and it isn’t always clear as to what he is singing. The strange ending also doesn’t help matters.

8) Dan Helciug – My Facebook girl
Aside Dan are a boy and girl playing away on their PCs, as well as doing some backing singing... The song is a very strange one. With such a modern title I was expecting something electronic and funky and quirky but it is actually just one guy and his guitar (pardon the pun) with a bluesy style song. The lyrics are actually quite twee and it seems to go on forever…

9) Distincto, Ianna and Anthony Icuagu – Open your eyes
This is a more ethereal type song with operatic overtones. Although it starts off well, I find the choruses a little bit grating. When they all sing together is seems like they are fighting against each other, rather than blending or complementing each other - especially Ianna- whose voice is a little shrill at times. In Eurovision terms this would definitely stand out

Another break A Romanian folk trio are doing a folk version of “Playing with fire” The woman in the band plays the guitar in the most bizarre way, with it under her arm, like a set of bagpipes with the arm of the guitar pointing out. Strange.
Then another (pointless) dance montage.

10) Directia 5- Cinema Love
Another case of ‘good song but wrong singers’. The look and movement of the band just doesn’t suit the song. The backing track has lots of interesting riffs and beats which are ignored by this performance. The song is also full of clichéd filmic references which are also ignored in the production of the song. I like it but something about it is mis-matched.

11) Rallsa - Take me Down
OMG Aska from Yugoslavia has comeback from1982. This so wants to be “We no speak Americano” or “Why don’t you” by Gramophonedzie. I have to give the writers and singers of the song for producing something so original and interesting. Unfortunately the girls’ English is very poor as are their singing voices and their co-ordination. Could have been AMAZING.

12) Hotel FM – Change
OMG Arvingarna are back from1993 ! The band are joined by 2 dancers who use different styles to mirror the music styles. They also play the trumpets XD The singer is very confident and sings with conviction. The song is a bit ‘stereotypical Eurovision’ with obligatory key change! Could do with more interaction between all the people on stage.

13) Mihai Alexandru, B-Body and Soul – Bang Bang
Another interesting song where lots of styles of song and dance are played around with and mixed together. Like previous participants Rallsa, it plays with the sounds of old style songs and movies. I could imagine with wild styling that this song would be very interesting to watch. Although the two main male singers are definitely singing live, I am not so sure about the girls…

Johnny Logan now appears singing “What’s another year” and “Hold me now”.

Eventually we get to the voting. Distincto, Ianna and Anthony Icuagu win the jury vote but only scored 5 with the telvote. However Hotel FM's 10 points from the jury and first place with the viewers give them the ticket to Germany in May.


SINGER - Hotel FM
SONG - Change
MUSIC- Gabriel Băruţă
WORDS - Gabriel Băruţă, Alexandra Ivan