Romanian singer Mihai Traistariu, who rose to Eurovision stardom in 2006 with “Tornero”, is determined to make good on his promise to return and even win in Stockholm with a new song, “Paradisio”. He made the official announcement on the evening news of Antena 1 television station yesterday.
The artist has restyled his name, simply calling himself Mihai now, and has undergone quite a transformation in order to step into the Eurovision arena again. Long gone are the days when Mihai posed in front of his mirror in underwear, calling himself the Selfie King, or when he offended Christians (and, well, everyone’s eyes) with his Jesus impersonation. The “Tornero” singer seems serious about his new bid for Eurovision, trying to improve his image at the gym and in beauty parlours and reminding everyone that he can belt out a tune — like he did last month in Greece, when he covered Conchita’s “Rise Like a Phoenix” at an OGAE Greece event.
Mihai has already shot the video for “Paradisio”, reportedly paying 15,000 euros for special effects featuring spaceships and aliens, with a release date to be announced soon.
It will be interesting to hear this new song that he keeps raving about, as his latest musical project, the turbofolk song “Maneaua mea”, wasn’t the comeback that everyone had hoped for when he teased the album “Change” — which is yet to materialize.
If “Paradisio” does materialize and is submitted to Selectia Nationala, it would not be the singer’s first attempt to return to the Eurovision stage after “Tornero”. Back in 2014, he announced his bid with the ballad “I’m Sorry”, but withdrew shortly after realizing that he didn’t stand a chance against Paula Seling and Ovi’s “Miracle” in Selectia Nationala. No, Mihai won’t finish second, thank you.
This time, however, Mihai promises that he will participate. He even claims that he is ready to cover TVR’s expenses to promote the song internationally, saying that he would sell his house in order to win Eurovision. But first he needs to win the national selection…
Update 20.01: One of the models in the video has released a short video which includes a snippet of the song. It’s not exactly relevant, but we think it’s safe to say that “Paradisio” aims to be a club stomper.
Hello, it's me Paradisio! Pregatiri Eurovision 2016! Videoclip Mihai Traistariu! Work is fun…less than a week! #paradisio #makeupteam #eurovision2016 #workisfun ????????????????
Posted by Isabel Strat Make-up Artist on 19 Ianuarie 2016
Romania’s Selectia Nationala 2016
Speaking of Selectia Nationala 2016, TVR has not announced details concerning Romania’s national selection, but an official announcement is expected in a few days’ time. Stay tuned!
What do you think? Are you excited for Mihai’s return to Eurovision? And do you think he could match the success of the anthem that was “Tornero”?
Photos: Mihai Traistariu
A few people complain about returning singers, nothing wrong with that. they want new fresh artist’s, But if you listen to most of the new SO CALLED new young artist’s
the stuff is of very bad quality, At least TORNERO was a hit that year, and really should have won , instead of that load of rubbish from Finland LORDI.
I really, really wanna see an ESC WITHOUT any returning artist or someone who tried their NF for zilionith time!
But, that would not happen this year…and I doubt that it will happen anytime soon.
There used to be a TON of great eurodance coming from Romania but between songs being pulled from Google Play/Spotify and the tradtional go-tos like Akcent and Edward Maya changing direction, there hasn’t been too much lately in the new decade that really stands out. Is Romanian EDM now one of those genres that’s faded out, or will Mihai help revive the genre with a new hit? Who knows? I hope it’s a good one. I still love Tornero!
Torneo was a good, catchy song sung well. Romania could do very well with a good song but this could look very silly by the sound of the video and be punished by the juries or really alternative and do poorly on the televote. Anyway, good look to him and I hope it is a good song.
Curious how many returning artists we will see in Stockholm in the end…
Tornero shouldve won back in 2006; Mihai had such an awesome performance and the song is still one I love listening to. That eurodance genre is my favorite genre of music and he did it right back in Athens 🙂 But I’m not sure, unless he’ll be giving us more eurodance songs like “Tornero” then personally I’m not too interested in his return. I miss the days of the mid-00s when those songs dominated eurovision. I’d actually like to see Akcent represent Romania, Jokero would’ve been another good song for Romania in 2006. But again, I like what they do… Read more »