Wiwi Jury Romania: Baietii with “Dragoste in lanturi”

The Wiwi Jury– our in-house panel of music unprofessionals – is eagerly awaiting Sunday, when Romania will choose its Eurovision representative through Selectia Nationala 2015. Next to face the panel is “Dragoste in lanturi”, by the boy band Baietii (a literal Romanian translation for “the boys”). With Denmark and Italy already covering that area, would these Romanian youngsters make an impact? Read on to see what our jury thinks.

David: Come on Romania, you are better than this!  A random band playing a middling quality song using heavy instrumentals to make up for the fact that there’s nothing spectacular in the song. This is the bathroom break for the Romanian contest (so present it 8th).

Score: 5.5/10

Deban: Dull as dishwater! Even Alejandro Sanz would ditch this as a B-side!  You know a song is playing when you hear this, but that about all you can remember, or care to.

Score: 3/10

Francheska: Cliché boy band. Cliché song about getting the girl. Cliché bits of including Latin music. Cliché. Cliché. CLICHÉ. It’s oddly enjoyable though, so I won’t massacre it completely.

Score: 4/10

Iñaki: There is something catchy about this song. I really like the guitar pizzicato that dresses the whole song and also the ’80s kind of beat supporting all the theme. From my point of view, it’s very linear. The style of this song could be too difficult in the ESC, but I kind of like it.

Score: 6.5/10

Josh: A boy band singing in Romanian. Let me leave you with that thought… Ridiculous, hey? This song is awful. The music is giving me 5ive/Craig David vibes and I’m not a fan of either of those artists. Pair that with a language that I can absolutely not relate to, and this song is practically a waste of my time.

Score: 2/10

Kristin: I’m one of those who gets a serious allergic reaction when hearing or watching anything that even resembles One Direction. I’m not saying that happened here per se, but I’m not losing myself in the music. They’re your typical boy band: three good-looking guys with a mediocre song. Not entirely bad, but I’ll probably go and make myself tea or something when this comes on.

Score: 5/10

Louis: This tries to be a ‘funky’ song but doesn’t really reach the standard expected with those songs. It’s still catchy and rhythmic but compared to the competition, not quite as good.

Score: 6.5/10

Luis: Was promising at the beginning, but ended sounding like Enrique Iglesias having a hangover in Bucharest. Not bad, yet not very good neither. A good staging can work for this one, and it may end up high in Selectia Nationala, but I can’t see it in Vienna; it’s too messy.

Score: 4.5/10

Max: This is like Romanian R&B/Rap, which is a genre I’ve never heard before and don’t really want to ever hear it again. The guitar segments throughout sound like they’ve been borrowed from one of Enrique Iglesias songs and just don’t fit in with it. I like to connect with songs and with this being in another language, rap orientated and messy I just feel like I’m missing out on why it got into the selection in the first place.

Score: 3.5/10

Patrick: Eww… Cheap boy band stuff in Romanian! This is a total mess, y’all. Those boys can’t sing and try to make a summer hit but this won’t trend anywhere, not internationaly and not even in Romania itself. Cheap is the best word to describe it.

Score: 2/10

Robyn: It’s 2015, so of course every good national final has a boyband. These guys are super cute, but their song sounds like it came from the last great era of boybands, 15 years ago. I’m sure they’ll put on a good show, but with Il Volo and Anti Social Media already going to Vienna, the cute boyband area is getting squeezed.

Score: 6/10

Sami: Even though it sounds a little like it’s from early 2000s, I could imagine listening to this on the radio during summertime. Romanian sounds nice and fits to the song very well. It might get lost in the Eurovision, but I don’t mind listening to it as its own piece.

Score: 7/10

Sopon: Of the two boy bands in Selectia Nationala (okay, a boy band and a long-established rock band made of men in their forties), this is obviously the weaker. It sounds like a failed version of Maroon 5 with some weird electronic in it. It takes more than being young and having good dance skills to pull the boy band genre off, you need some decent songs too!

Score: 4.5/10

The highest and lowest scores have been removed before calculating the final scores to avoid bias. We have removed a high 7 of and a low of 2.

The Wiwi Jury Verdict: 4.8/10

You can read all of our reviews and rankings for Selectia Nationala 2015 by clicking here. You can also keep up with the latest Eurovision news and gossip by following the team from wiwibloggs.com on Twitter @wiwibloggs and by liking our Facebook page.