Selectia Nationala 2017 Our Review
Finally we have a winner in Romania and this is: Ilinca and Alex Florea – YODEL IT ! Congratulations you beautiful and talented people. It was by far the best Eurovision moment of the final. We are saying this taking into account all the performances, the eurovision vibe of the songs and the whole show. All the artists gave their best and we congratulate them for this. All of them, but one, changed the concept of the presentation , since the semifinal, which was a good thing, making it even more exciting to whatch.
- Ana Maria Mirica – “Spune-mi tu” Composer- Liviu Elekes/ Text: Roxana Elekes
Ana gave her best, and she was amazing. We know her from The Voice of Romania, and she has an amazing voice and stage presence. We love Ana, the song not so much, but it was a very professional performance.
2. Ilinca feat. Alex Florea – “Yodel It!” Composer: Mihai Alexandru/ Text: Alexandra Niculaie
Ilinca and Alex delivered the best performance they could do. Pure Eurovision moment, for those who know what Eurovision is all about. For all of those who say the song is not very good, don’t listen to them. It is pure Eurovision bait. We missed a song like this in Eurovision , and I think they will do very good in Kyiv.
3. Eduard Santha – “Wild Child” Composer /Text: Eduard Santha and Marius Alexandru Pop
Eduart was good. A bit too avant-guard for Romania, but still a nice entry. Lots of power and a true perfromance. Good job.
4. Xandra – “Walk on by”- Composer/Text: William Taylor and Jonas Gladnikoff
Professionaly perfect. Visualy not the best. She could have done a more dramatic outfit, a different lighting and it would have been better, cause everybody waited for a better change than the semifinal performance. It is that kind of powe ballad, that never fails in Eurovision. Too bad cause we loved this entry.
5. MIHAI – “I won’t surrender”- Composer/Text: Mihai Trăistariu, Michael James Down, Primoz Poglajen, Niklas Hast
The only artist that didn’t change his performance, and it really wasn’t necessary. He delivered the song perfect, and what a song. It is that kind of lyrical ballad that get’s you every time you listen to it. Nice one from Mihai, no wonder he placed 2-nd. He will eventualy represent Romania again, but he just needs to find his perfect song. This one wasn’t ment to be.
6. Maxim feat. Nicolae Voiculet – “Adu-ti aminte”- Composer/Text: Adrian Sînă / Adrian Sînă, Anca Cojocaru, Andrei Vitan
Maxim didn’t manage to impress us in any way. Sorry 🙁 They are cute, young, and in search of their musical way. They need to realise that it takes a bit more than an army of fans to make it to the top. We apreciate that they tried to present themself in a very professional way. Good job, but they need to grow up professionally speaking. We hope this is just the beggining of a beautiful firnedship with musical contests.
7. Tavi Colen & Emma – “We own the night”- Composer/Text: Cătălin Tuţă Popescu / Cătălin Tuţă Popescu, Anastasia Sandu.
This entry would have been perfect during the early 2000’s. It is a nice Eurovision entry with a lot of “checked”ponts. Good one but too late. This is 2017, and the lack of originality I think brought them fewer ponts. Nevertheless they were very nice and professional. Good job!
8. Instinct – “Petale”- Composer/Text: Daniel Alexandrescu, Vlad Alecu / Theea Eliza Miculescu, Vlad Alecu.
Our guilty pleasure this year. Beautiful song, delivered very nice. For those who do not understand romanian, I am telling you it has such nice lyrics, very romantic. We loved them. They were very true to their craft, and it paid off by getting the 3rd place. Congratz!
9. Ramona Nerra – “Save me”- Composer/Text: Ramona Nerra, Terri Bjerre, Toddi Reed.
Ramona tried to change the whole perfromance. It only managed to make it even more complicated. We apreciate the effort, but it didn’t manage to transmit. She delivered the song good, but beacause of her special voice, everything seemed forced, vocally speaking. Not sure what to say, caue I really like Ramona very much. I think she is a very professional artist, true to what she does and has a very special voice. I only hope she will try agaian. Good job Ramona.
10. Cristina Vasiu – “Set the skies on fire”- Composer/Text: Carl Kindbom, Carl Thander, Antonio Sanchez Ohlsson.
Cristina was very nice. Amazing voice, and a very good song. The backing vocals didn’t help at all. Not vocally, but visualy. I didn’t got the idea. White faces, in a mixture of movements, but not very coherent moment. She was way too elegant compared to the mixture of costumes that the backing was wearing. Wrong choice in my opinion. But a very very good song.
After all the song got played we moved to the green room from where we have a few shots. The atmosphere was amazing in the audience, and in the green room. The contestants were so relaxed and relieved they got through the perfromances, that they created ana amazing feeling backstage. Everybody was singing all the songs of the recap and it was an amazing feeling to see how music brings people together.
After the televoting started, TVR invited on stage a band called Arrival, which did an ABBA tribute, which in my opinion was too long. Good music though 🙂 Judge for yoyrself here:
After that, the international artists got to play their songs. We were so glad to see the romanians from Timebelle singing here in Bucharest, and we absolutley love the song from Moldova. Manel was so nice to chat a bit with us backstage, he is so modest and he has such a good vibe.
Timebelle, Sunstroke Project and Manel Navarro perfromed thei entries. They had lots of fun backstage, and did a few interviews.
The televoting was over and the three song that got the highest points were invited on stage: MIhai- “Surrender”, Instinst – “Petale” and Ilinca feat. Alex Florea – “Yodel It!”.
Here is the announcement of the winners:
and here is the full scoreboard of the votes:
The winners are of course: Ilinca and Alex Florea – “Yodel it”…and this is exactly what we hope to hear Europe shout in Kyiv 🙂 sooo Yodel it Europe !!!!!
Good job TVR, who managed to make a nice final this year! After the romanian participation fiasco from last year, we really hope 2017 will bring us back into top 5. Finger’s crossed ! Congratulations TVR and Congratualations Ilinica and Alex !
Romania will take part in the seccond semifinal, on the 11th of May in Kyiv.
Over and out!
Ionut Demetriad for escromania.com
