ROMANIA

The Romanian Final was held at Sala Polivalenta in Bucharest on February 25th, hosted by Cezar Ouatu & Diana Dumitrescu. Before the final there were 5 semi-finals, with 3 songs qualifying from each. Heat qualifiers were chosen solely by a jury but during the final the winner was chosen by 100% televoting. The winning song was “Goodbye” performed by The Humans.

The band is spread out along the stage with the main singer, Cristina stood centre in a long black cloak. Behind her the rest of the band are dressed in white. Two of the band members are wearing masks and come towards her from behind. They rip off the cloak revealing a much shorter red beaded dress. The band members do very little apart from this initial movement. Cristina, however, moves around the stage quite freely, whipping her very lengthy hair as well as encouraging the audience to join in with the song. The background screen is fairly generic with different colours and beams of light although you can just make out the outline of a double helix – a tie-in to the band name in a subtle way.

This probably falls under the genre of “rock ballad” and does not feel too removed from Coldplay’s “Yellow” but with a strong female vocalist. The song starts quite gently and shows off Cristina’s very distinctive voice. After the wardrobe change she starts to let her voice soar and show that slightly harder rock edge to her vocal. The song itself is lacking in structure. There is a chorus but is kind of lost in between the disparate verses, differing tunes and lengthy instrumentals. Moreover, the ending of the song is very sudden and nothing in the stagecraft prepares you for the sudden conclusion either.

The performance looks very amateur but sounds really professional, which provides an immediate disconnect. The whole look of the piece needs tightening up, needs a stronger connection to the tv and stage audience and a bigger tie-in to the words of the song. Cristina is an excellent singer, her voice is strong and rich but it is totally wasted on this song. Also, compared to some of the other rock songs on offer this year, this entry feels a bit tame, soulless and almost boring. With so many styles and languages on offer this entry comes across and a bit safe. In terms of Eurovision, they are lucky to be in a semi with some nearby and /or friendly countries but right now I don’t think this is going to be enough and this could be their very first non-qualification since the introduction of the semi-finals.

ARTIST –  The Humans

SONG – Goodbye

MUSIC - Matei Alexandru, Alin Neagoe

LYRICS - Cristina Caramarcu