Romania

Romania is back after a year and how! When this song came out it just took me a little time to fall for it, in fact the first live performance still at the audition stage for the national final impressed me with how good the vocals actually are. Today that is still the case.

The idea of the performance is largely what we have been seing from them before, with focus on both performers using the whole stage. The backing vocals are visible, which is really nice for a change. The big add on here is the canon that Alex walks to later in the song. He then stands on it. The camera angles still need a bit of work though, as it could all look a lot smoother.

Another thing that has to be mentioned is the backdrop. It is very colourful but I would imagine this kind of visuals more for a kids programme.

ESCKAZ wonder if the pressroom would like to join in a singalong for Romania on Thursday at 12.40 #ComeTogether @Eurovision_TVR @Eurovision

— ESCKAZ team (@ESCKAZ) May 3, 2016

We had a chance today to see the opening ceremony of the Eurovision Village at the City Hall Square with a unique show idea FASHION FOR EUROPE. The idea is about designers and brands from many different participating countries building bridges through fashion.

In total it took 1.5 hours to present 14 brand: Agnesa Vuyhaj (Albania), Sinoian (Armenia), Lena Hoschek (Austria), Fakhriya Khalafova (Azerbaijan), Bernard Depoorrter (Belgium), Ivana Helsinki (Finland), Atelier Michalsky (Germany), Galia Lahav (Israel), Calzedonia (Italy), Daili (Lithuania), Sanja Matijevic (Montenegro), Blessus by Michael Hekmat (Poland), Adelina Ivan (Romania), Julian Zigerli (Switzerland).

Romania are also sticking to pretty much everything they've rehearsed so far.

I'm really liking their graphics. I think it's better than actually showing the full video clip.

Not sure how this will do in terms of international audience, but strong contender once again from Romania.

What a nice evening we spent with Samira at Eurowies’n Night today at Belvedere Palace. The Belvedere is a historic building complex in Vienna, consisting of two Baroque palaces, the Orangery, and the Palace Stables. The buildings are set in a Baroque park landscape and it houses the Belvedere museum now.

How did we get to know about it? We received invitations from our press bags stating that we need to be dressed up “beautiful, colourful, traditional”. Unfortunately we were not aware of this beforehand to bring at least some traditional accessories with ourselves from our countries. We thought that everyone will follow our thoughts so there will be no one wearing national costumes. But we were surprised, people took a lot of care and attention about this night. Most of the invited were dressed up “properly”.

By the way, at the entrance we were given two vouchers for free drinks each and a flute of proseco. We realized that they were giving a lot of drinks for free until they finish with them. After that we could use our vouchers for soft drinks and spirits.

It all started with the speech of the organizers of the event and the management of the Belvedere complex. The views of the area are amazingly beautiful. After a while, we met Bojana (Serbia), she was very open to public, taking picture and explaining the meaning of her traditional dress. The dress is a fusion of the southern and northern part of Serbia, but the shoes she’s wearing are very traditional in each part of the country.

From EuroParty, May 14

All of a sudden girls and boys started serving food to everyone. They served traditional food from each country (40 different dishes – starters, mains and deserts). We had Salmon cake from Norway, Prawns with egg from Denmark, Melon yoghurt salad from Cyprus, Chocolate kiss from Slovenia, Banana cake from Australia and many many many more! I don’t have that much time to describe the variety of foods that was offered.

At the same time music started. Traditional Austrian music. No, wait! It’s the Eurovision songs of this year sang the Austrian way with an ascent. Powerkryner was very energetic, very enthusiastic and full of life. The dancers – 6 girls are just awesome, they could dance and entertain public till morning I think. We found out that this band won an award in traditional Austrian contest as the best traditional band in Vienna last year.

Later on we met with some other participants from Moldova (Eduard Romanyta) and from Romania (Voltaj). They all were wearing their national costumes, and we received a gift from Eduard (a CD with Eurovision song + remix and 6 other songs).

From EuroParty, May 14

I think we are very lucky to visit such an event. We spent the time the best way ever with even some practical use – we got to know and taste a lot of traditional dishes. And you have to! Here’s the menu of today’s evening!

From EuroParty, May 14

Thank you very much wienerwiesnfest.at for this event!

So far it’s the first song sang not in the English language. It’s a good change for a while. There is a dozen of suitcases on the stage acting as a decoration. And this is understandable. The song is about a boy waiting for his parents from abroad.

Kalin is wearing an interesting outfit, with an accessory where a bow is supposed to be – a cross with some stones, maybe precious.

Two guitars, a piano and drums. Romania has a good song to my mind, but not a winning one.

Romania have send a band to Vienna who is one of their most professional and experienced household names from home.
It's that professionality that really shines through in the entry that they picked, but also the way it's portrayed on the staging.
the backdrop starts first with two gigantic suitcases which open, and showcases shots from the song's video clip. Throughout the stage, several suitcases are being scattered around.

The first chorus and two verses are fully sung in Romanian before the rest of the track is being performed in English. I think that's been a good choice to make it fifty fifty allow both the international viewers as Romanian supporters to understand the lyrics.

Personally Romania's song doesn't really do much for me, but their professionalism is really shining through in the way they perform and I don't see any reason why Romania wouldn't make it into the finals this year.

Romania, Sept Points!