ROMANIA 2022

The Romanian Final "Selectia Nationala" was held on March 5th at the TVR TV Studios in Bucharest, hosted by Eda Marcus and Aurelian Temisan. Before the final there was a semi-final where a jury reduced the long list of 20 to a final of 10. The winner was chosen by by a split of jury vote 5/6 and phone voting 1/6.  Going to Eurovision is WRS (pronounced urs) and "Llámame" (Call me)

Andrei-Ionuț Ursu - stage name WRS - started his career in show business as a dancer, backing many well known Romanian and Moldovan artists. He was also part of the background troupe used on TV shows like The Voice Romania and Romania's Got Talent. His first foray into singing was in 2015 as part of the boyband Shot. Two years later he left the project, moving to London to work on solo ideas. In 2020, he signed with Global Records starting up the electro-pop music project WRS. He has released several songs and an album Romania and Bulgaria.

The song follows a rather simplistic verse-pre chorus-chorus flow which comes round twice. However after each chorus there is a lengthy instrumental when Andrei and his backing dancers enjoy time to partake in rather Strictly-looking posturing and flamenco arms. He dances while singing too but this part is much more flamboyant and interactive with the others on stage. From here there is a rather weak bridge leading into the final chorus which he sings slightly differently to before. There is then a instrumental outro with more dancing as the song ends. His style of music is electropop although this song has obvious Latino influences.

This entry has a strong identity and that is not a bad thing. The stage show as it is kind of works but also has the ability to be upscaled without ruining the concept. I might be tempted to change the backdrop and the lighting a little as at certain times the whole thing looks very dark and slightly sinister. The repetitive chorus really does get in your head and by the end your are joining in without thinking, however the rest of the song is a little directionless. His diction is not always the clearest and you have to really listen to fully get his gist. I feel like he is trying to be emotional and charismatic at the start but actually comes across as creepy and almost like he can't sing. If he could be more direct at the start of the song he might be able to engage even more energy further down the song. Plus he doesn't always find the camera which would help with getting the message further down the lens. He definitely knows how to wow and impress the crowd in front of him but needs more work to connect to those able to vote at home. It may be interesting to see, if it qualifies, how this stands up against the actual Spanish entry.

ARTIST - WRS
SONG - Llámame (Call me)
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Costel Domințeanu, Cezar Gună, Alex Turcu, ​WRS