ROMANIA

The Romanian Final was held at Sala Sporturilor 'Romeo Iamandi' in Buzau on March 1st, hosted by Elena Gheorghe & Connect-R. At the start of February it was revealed that Roxen had been internally selected as singer but her song would be chosen in a national final. Roxen will sang all 5 songs and the winner was chosen via televoting and jury. In Rotterdam she will be singing "Alcohol You"

Roxen stands centre stage in front of a vast sweeping video screen. She is wearing a rather unusually cut dress which makes her look a bit like a mermaid. The bodice of the dress come underneath he chest and the op part is just darker than flesh coloured. The skirt is long and white and has a slit up on slid. From this you can also see she is wearing white boots. On the top part of the dress you can see beads and jewels on the fabric and these can also be seen on her forehead and under her eyes.

For the first part of the song Roxen is stood still and for a lot of the song she sings with her eyes closed.  The backdrop is mainly blue with slight lines and the formation of a kind of circle/globe is made After the first chorus she turns around and there is another Roxen on the screen. The two Roxens hold their hands out to try and reach each other at the end of the second verse but the backdrop implodes and starts of resemble a Northern Lights type sky and a big white glow in the middle sky. From here on in, the setting goes back to the blue that it was before and as the song ends the spotlights that were on her slowly dim out

The structure of this rather fragmented sounding ballad is in fact very formulaic with a long verse, pre chorus and chorus and then the sequence repeated again. The music is very atmospheric with lots of macrobeats and almost silence at different parts of the song. Her vocal style is rather curious and have quite a distinctive style but without coming across as unintelligible or rambling. In an odd way her performance style ties in with the rather melancholic nature of the lyrics.

This is a very stylised entry and I think this is an entry where you either hate it or love it. The song itself sounds like it could be a song by Lorde or Billie Eilish and could be seen as one of the more contemporary entries and could get quite the following. Personally this is not my style and the lack of flow and drive, and that sense of going on a journey just isn't there.
What annoys about this track is the use of such a bad pun, which is also badly delivered in the song, as the title (apparently the phrase alcohol you is a pun on 'I'll call you'). Unless this is explained before hind I think a lot of people are not going to get the hype. What I will say is that I think she has got a good singing voice and seem to have an understanding of self and the direction she wants to go in but I am unsure if this is the song to prove this at Eurovision. I expect this to reach the final but not a winner.

Artist - Roxen
Song - Alcohol you
Composers - Armaș Ionuț, Viky Red
Lyricists - Armaș Ionuț,  Breyan Isaac