Previewing the Entrants of Eurovision 2019 – Part Thirty-Three: Romania

Hello everyone and welcome to another post on The Blogging DJ, where we will continue to look in-depth at each of the forty one countries competing in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. Today we are off to Bucharest, to analyse the Romanian entry, Ester Peony with “On a Sunday”. But is this song a Sunday snooze?

Selection Process

As they have done since making their debut in the contest, the Romanian broadcaster TVR organised a national final called Selecția Națională. After failing to make the Grand Final for the first time ever last year, the broadcaster said that in a press conference that changes would be made to how the entry is selected. The submission period from entries started on the 9th of November 2018 and finished on the 10th of December. The twenty-four semi-finalists were announced on the 20th of December. Ester Peony finished third in the jury vote to automatically progress to the Grand Final, then dominated the all important jury vote in the final. This was just as well, as she finished in a lowly eighth place in the televoting, but the heavy weighting in favour of the jury won her the ticket to Tel Aviv. It has also been announced that Romania will perform in the first half of semi-final two, in slot number six.

Music Video

The Blogging DJ’s Review

There are always room for darker songs in the contest, as a great contrast to the manufactured pop entries. However, if the song is not interesting enough to keep me hooked, it falls into the background. That is how I feel about Romania’s song. It didn’t have a bad base to work on at all; the subject of a lover leaving the performer could have been so much greater. But instead of grit, anger and passion in bucketloads, they are far too subtle. What makes it worse is that every line is sung with a great amount of vocal acrobatics involved, so that it loses any kind of drive. I am also worried about the staging for Tel Aviv, since it was very static in the National Final; it needs a more interesting layer to keep me invested in this. 6

Live Performance Video

Odds

According to Oddschecker, you can currently get odds ranging from 100/1 to 250/1 on Romania winning the Grand Final, as well as odds up to 12/1 on reaching the top ten. This puts them below a lot of other countries, suggesting that it will be a struggle to reach the Grand Final this year.

Record at Eurovision

Romania have entered the Eurovision Song Contest nineteen times since making their debut in 1994, with last year’s effort the only occasion where they have failed to perform in the Grand Final. Their best finish first came in 2005, where Luminița Anghel & Sistem finished in third place overall with “Let Me Try”. This was later matched in 2010 by Paula Seling & Ovi, and their song “Playing with Fire”. As I have mentioned above, having an interesting staging with shop window mannequins did not prevent The Humans from crashing out in the semi-finals, just one place away from qualification.

So what are your thoughts on the Romanian entry? Is it Sunday breezy listening or Sunday hangover? And can Romania return to the Grand Final with this entry? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below and stay tuned for more Eurovision-themed articles being released in the weeks leading up to the contest.