ROMANIA

The Romanian Final was held on March 8th at Sala Polivalenta in Craiova, hosted by Alina Serban & Andrei Borosovici. The winner was chosen by a mixture of televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%). Going to Vienna is the band Voltaj with the song "De la capăt" (From the start).

TVR used the Selectia Nationala to choose their entry but unlike previous years there were no semi finals. This could be a reflection on the amount of entries submitted or the standard of songs sent in. The songs were of ranging genre but most of the songs were out done by the 'fashions' or lack thereof on stage. The setting was quite big yet simplistic with the use of different coloured lighting and a video screen. However the show was stolen by the interval act guest - Ruslana. She went into full on show mode and at times you thought she was never going to stop - in fact we never really saw her 'finish' and was probably dragged off kicking and screaming

The song is a contemporary soft rock song sung in Romanian. The song seems to be a cautionary and emotional tale about the migration of Romania's residents to work abroad and leaving family, especially children, behind.  As it is not in a well known language the song relies on its tune. Luckily, the tune is very clear and surprisingly catchy and has some nice simplistic and predictable chord patterns. This gets you humming along if you don't know the words. It sounds slightly bittersweet and sad even if you don't understand the words.

Voltaj are a well established rock band in Romania, winning the MTV award for best Romania Act back in 2005. Their work is mainly done in the local tongue and therefore not really known outside of their homeland. The lead singer of the band, Călin Goia, has a very good voice and sounds a lot more smooth than what his looks suggest - which seems to be more like a Guy Fawkes mask from V for Vendetta. His live performance during the final seemed well within him and seemed to put the right amount of emotion into his performance.

I don't think much needs to be done to this entry. There are not many fully fledged bands and keeping this difference will help sell the act. The motif of the suitcases is just brilliant and sets up a great angle for the story of the song although I am not sure if they should keep the start with the woman leaving the child in bed (for one it would need 7 people on stage and 2 you can't have under 16s on stage). The use of excepts from the music video are really great and help to tell the story of the song. They could try the best of both worlds by having the last chorus in English but as the singers English is not he best it might not be worth the effort.

This is a very strong song with a powerful message and a great repetitive tune. The people who it is reaching out too (the Romanian diaspora) will vote for this in its droves but I fear that for non-Romanians this might go over their heads. That said I think fans of this style of U2/Coldplay contemporary style music will like this too. Semi final one is possibly a bit more open and with some friendly countries voting, this should qualify for the final. Unusually I feel that if it does qualify it will fare better in the final than in its semi.

ARTIST - Voltaj

SONG - De la capăt (From the start)

MUSIC - G Constantin, C Goia, A Cristescu, V-R Alstani, S Păduraru

LYRICS - G Constantin, C Goia, A Cristescu, V-R Alstani, S Păduraru