ROMANIA 2023

The Romanian final "Selecția Națională" was held on February 11th at the TVR Studios in Bucharest with hosts Ilinca Bacila and Laurentiu Niculescu. Votes could be cast via sms and online. The winning song was  "D.G.T. off and on" (Fingers off and on) sung by Theodor Andrei.

Theodor Andrei first made himself known by participating in the 2017 talent show Vocea Romaniei Junior, the Romanian version of The Voice Kids, where he reached the semi-final. In 2020 he took part in X Factor Romania, where he reached boot camp. His debut album "Fragil" was released in 2022 with Theodor producing many of the songs with Dan Dimitriu. As well as singing, he has also acted and performed - most notably in a famous satirical children's review show called "Nepotii lui Tanase".

Theodor is sat wearing black and white trousers, white shirt and black bow tie and he is writing into a book. Behind him are two female dancers, who are later joined by two male ones, and behind them are two guitarists. Also on the stage are two small platforms used by Theodore and the dancers later on. The backdrop contains a lot of flashing and random patterns of red as well as the letters D.G.T at pertinent points. The song ticks along really quickly and there is not much space between the parts. It starts almost immediately with two verses, a bridge and chorus in Romanian. The next two verses -one much longer than the other - are in English followed by a brief Romanian bridge. Next follows an English version of the chorus but sung with a deeper tone and will a very scarce backing. The song ends with an elongated chorus back in Romanian. The languages chop and change at this point but flow quite nicely in and out of each other. The song ends with the reveal of the phrase 'make love not war' on the backdrop and written across his chest.

Theodor has a good voice and his diction during the English parts is pretty good considering the speed in which he drives thorough the song. He sells the song well, has great connection to the audience and seems to know where the camera is at all times. His signature look of the glasses and long hair is instantly memorable. The word 'degete' being written as D.G.T. is also a clever way of getting the pronunciation an unfamiliar foreign word into people's heads as well as sparking questions about what it might mean or stand for. This song has a gutsy, sexy jazz vibe but it is the presentation which concerns me most. 

Although the staging is memorable, there is too much going on - 3 ideas are on show when there need only be one. Theodor's costume changes are effective but the impact is lessened due to the surplus movement on stage and the busy-ness of the backdrop. The use of the voodoo doll is also a interesting gimmick but doesn't work. Something like this needs to be *the* theme rather than one domino in a rally of concepts. The female dancers are almost a necessity for the song's narrative but they are dressed too provocatively (especially as they are dancing with an 18 year old) and I am not sure if the platforms or the male dancers are needed either. This is a good song but it is being held back by negligent, complex and overbearing staging. Sell the singer and the song and this will sail through to Saturday night. Leave it as it is, it'll end up a mush of lights and movement and confusion.

ARTIST - Theodor Andrei

SONG - D.G.T. (off and on)

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Theodor Andrei, Luca de Mezzo, Mikail Jahed, Luca Udățeanu, The Watcher

ROMANIA 2021

The Romanian song was released on March 4th, via the Eurovision youtube channel. Roxen, who had been internally selected to represent Romania last year was reselected after the cancellation of Eurovision 2020. Unlike last year, where her song was chosen in a national final, this year's entry was internally selected. Her song is called "Amnesia"

The video takes place in a theatre although I don't think this particularly adds anything to the song or performance but does feel quite apt at a time where performances like this just aren't allowed. Roxen has long back hair and is wearing a dark green hoodie and black & grey trousers. Later in in the performance she changes into a slightly more intricate black jacket and trousers but if you are not paying attention you can easily miss the change! She is on stage with a number of dancers in a kind of grey/beige colour who really accentuate the rhythm and meaning of the song.

After a very minimal intro, Roxen joins in. After a very brief verse the build up to chorus begins. There is then a pre-chorus before the chorus. Unfortunately this part is highly processed with very obvious auto tuning which doesn't fill you with utmost confidence in either her or the song. We then have another cycle of verse/pre-chorus/chorus before a bridge focussing on the 'self love' part of the song before a final rendition of the chorus. The backing track is rather atmospheric and ethereal and only really the beat changes in the different parts of the song. Also, from looking at the lyrics sheet, it starts to feel like the verses are a little bit of an after thought as they take up so little of the running time and the chorus build up and finish lasts 45 seconds on it's own - and takes up almost 2 minutes of the song on its own.

Roxen is a relative newcomer to the music business but has already had three top 3 songs in her homeland, with two of those being in Romanian rather than English. Most of her songs have been in the genre of deep house although she has sung a range of different tempos. Possibly due to her age, she has also been compared to Billie Eilish, and her 2020 entry definitely backed that ideal up. However last last year she duetted with Alexander Rybak on the song "Wonderland".

As much as Roxen's 2020 entry was lyrically poor it did at least have flow, rise & fall and character ,this to me feels very one note. The use of autotune makes no sense whatsoever as it won't be used when live plus the production style and quick lyrics in the chorus almost make it unintelligible. As much as the song is about mental health and self worth, it starts to com across as moody and wallowing in the feelings rather than having any optimism or hope. That said I do enjoy the video and as much as I would adore Roxen to do something like this at Eurovision I don't think her voice would stand such a physical pounding. For a song called "Amnesia", it certainly leaves your head rather quickly....

ARTIST - Roxen
SONG - Amnesia
WRITING CREDITS - Victor Bourosu, Adelina Stinga

10/03/12 ROMANIA

The Romanian Final was held on March 10th at the TVR TV Studios in Bucharest, hosted by Gianina Corondan, Iulia Pârlea, Constantin Trofin,Valentin Paraschiv, Bogdan Iacob & David Zory. The winner, chosen by a 50-50 split of televoting and jury was the band Mandinga with their song “Zaleilah”

The band works really well together and the whole show is very much a cohesive unit. The lead singer has a very powerful voice and sings very well. Her Spanish is very good too ! The lead singer comes on in very high heels and almost immediately does a costume change, which was a little on the unnecessary side.

The song is quite an interesting one. It has a lot of international elements to it  - the drumming, the accordion, the bagpipes the use of Spanish – and in a strange way it really works. It’s not exactly sing-alongable at first hearing but does make you tap along and get involved. OK they have a nonsense chorus and almost as nonsensical dance routine to go along with it but to be honest it just sounds nice. It sounds like they want to be there and enjoy what they do.

I don’t think this is a bad entry from the Romanians and should qualify.

SONG – Zaleilah

ARTIST – Mandinga

COMPOSERS – Secada Dihigo Omar, Ionescu Elena, Costi Ioniţă

LANGUAGE – Spanish/English

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