Last night, the Romanian city of Iasi hosted a “Eurovision Show” within a larger festival aimed to support the Moldavian city’s bid to become European Capital of Culture in 2021. Paula Seling and Ovi (Romania 2010 and 2014), Alexander Rybak from Norway (winner of Eurovision 2009) and Ruslana from Ukraine (winner of Eurovision 2004) took to the stage during the free concert in the city centre.
Paula and Ovi opened the show amid a lukewarm reception due to the unrepentant rain and unseasonably cold temperatures, but quickly warmed up the crowd. They performed many of their hits, but also new songs from Ovi’s new album. They ended their concert with “Miracle” and “Playing With Fire”.
Alexander Rybak took to the stage (at the 59:00 mark) and delighted the growing audience with many of his hits, including his latest song “Into A Fantasy”, included on the soundtrack of the Dreamworks animation film “How To Train Your Dragon 2”. Predictably, he ended his show with the Eurovision 2009 winning song “Fairytale”.
Ukrainian Eurovision veteran Ruslana followed (at the 01:39:30 mark) and, contrary to her predecessors, opened her recital with her winning song “Wild Dances”. Despite this, she managed to keep the audience on their toes, with a vibrant performance of her song, which she chose to end with her 2013 hit “This Is Euphoria”.
The event was live streamed on YouTube but you can view it above at your leisure. Mind you, you’ll need to turn up your speakers, because the sound is quite low.
Hi Padraig
Oh no, I never said there were any events like this in Ireland. I just said that this sounds like something that would take place in Ireland. This is because Eurovision is huge in Ireland. I mean, it’s unlikely (but could still happen) that Ireland will lose it’s accolade of the most victories ( I forecast a win for IRELAND in the next 5 years as well.).
Deven could you please tell me about these Irish events you speak of. Apart from a tour by the washed up past Irish winners a few years ago, I’ve never heard of events like this taking place in Ireland.
Wow. The Eurovision Song Contest must be hugely popular in Romania for something like this to take place. It is the kind of event you would actually see in Ireland, Sweden or the Netherlands because those 3 countries have a rich Eurovision tradition and the contest is immensely popular in Ireland, Sweden and the Netherlands.
@Darren
I agree, hosting the contest in Ukraine anytime soon would be just as bad as hosting it in Syria or Kosovo. If Zlata had won instead of Emmelie, it would just be too dangerous to host ESC in Kyiv’s Palace Sportu (Where the 2005 contest was held.) and it would have had to have been held somewhere safe, like the UK, Germany, France or Norway (I doubt the EBU would have wanted Azerbaijan to win again in 2013 and host it in Baku in 2014. Plus, Oslo/Norway has experience with hosting Eurovision in the last five years.).
Worse than boring … bad! Ruslana especially … why on earth people like her and her 2004 entry is still beyond me. She did nothing but waving hair, jumping around and entertaining everybody as if she was a monkey in a circus. Singing?? I could not understand a damn word … as she was breathing and mumbling words all at the same time. It was chaos. Had she done what Britney Spears does aka playback … it still would have worked for her. Is this the kind of musician people like? The one that does not really have to sing… Read more »
Ruslana should go back to Eurovision again, although, Ukraine is probably not in a position to host a contest anytime soon considering the way things are at the minute.
Boring artists.
Wasn’t there anybody better than these 3?