Wiwi Jury Results: Cezara is our favourite to win in Moldova

The Wiwi Jury – our in-house panel of music unprofessionals – has reviewed all 24 semi-finalists in Moldova’s national selection O melodie pentru Europa, and it’s time to announce our winner. Cezara, with her Romanian language song “Am devenit straini” (We Became Strangers), has won over our international jury, which consists of a Slovene, a Finn, a New Zealander, an Icelander, an Australian, two Americans and an Austrian.

Besides seeing a Romanian language song as the Wiwi Jury winner of O melodie pentru Europa 2015, it is interesting to find Ukrainian singer Eduard Romanyuta in second place, while fan favourites SunStroke Project are trailing behind in third position with “Day After Day”.

Below, you can see our jury’s Top 5 and the average score for each act. Clicking on the song title will take you to the respective review in full. The entire Top 24 is available here.

1. Cezara – Am devenit straini (8.37/10)

The positive: A ballad that accelerates, lets Cezara’s vocals shine, and has an absolute crescendo. We aren’t going to be strangers to this song! I’m begging Cezara to keep it in Romanian. English lyrics would completely destroy it.

The negative: As the song went on it felt repetitive, just more and more of the same. If the song started as is but then evolved to be more, then we would have something. This could make it out of a poor semi-final [in Vienna], but not a competitive one.

2. Eduard Romanyuta – “I Want Your Love” (8.06/10)

The positive: We may not have Ukraine in Vienna this year, but they could be cheering on their very talented countryman Eduard Romanyuta. He’s kinda like the male Britney Spears of Moldova, charming looks and a fantastic performer with a brilliantly infectious pop song.

The negative: An OK song and his voice is decent. But it doesn’t grab you, not even a little. I found myself hoping it would hurry up and end sooner.

3. SunStroke Project feat. Michael Ra – “Day after Day” (7.81/10)

The positive: Yes, yes, yes, YES!! Oh that voice!… Welcome back Sergei, please, don’t ever leave me again… And Epic Sax Guy’s moves!… It’s all sending shivers of satisfaction down my spine. “Day after Day ” is not as strong as “Run Away”, but is still a pretty damn solid number. SunStroke Project to Vienna!

The negative: Repetitive and uninteresting song. The guy has a good voice but if you’ve heard the first 15 seconds of this song, you’ve heard the entire thing.

4. Stela Botan & The Cadence of Heart – “Save Me” (7.75/10)

The positive: It’s positively haunting (in a good way)! It’s melodramatic, soulful, and the contrast between the verses and chorus makes me fangirl! It can be staged really well, and do what very few heavy rock songs have been able to do at Eurovision: succeed.

The negative: It has a strong chorus, but there’s really nothing that would make me want to listen to it again. Her voice sounds quite stuffy. It would need something in the actual live performance to stand out from the rest of the songs.

5. Lidia Isac – “I Can’t Breathe” (7.37/10)

The positive: I saw her live audition and, my word! She absolutely blew me away with her flawless vocals! First impressions count and Lidia became an instant favourite of mine. [The song] might be dated, but I don’t mind it here. Actually – I LOVE IT!

The negative: Those breathing exercises in the middle need to go. Now. It’s cheesy and adds nothing to an otherwise decent dance track.

Viewing Details

Moldova’s first semi-final of O melodie pentru Europa kicks off tonight at 18:45 CET. It will be broadcast live on the TRM.md website here. The second semi-final will be broadcast at the same time on 26 February. The winner will be selected during the national final on 28 February.

What do you think about our jury’s picks? Do you have a different top five? Sound off below!

Follow all of our Moldova Eurovision news here.