After warming up with the first four reviews of the songs from Moldova‘s national selection O melodie pentru Europa 2016, the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of musical unprofessionals — is moving on to the next four acts that aim to represent Chisinau in Stockholm. Do we have a winner here? Let’s find out!
5. Emilia Russu – “I Am Not The Same”
Edd: What a beautiful production! If I block out the (atrocious) lyrics, the simple oriental production floats me down a gently flowing mountain stream below the shade of wavering cherry blossom trees. Translate the song into Romanian and dress her up as Mulan and BOOM: it’s a masterpiece.
Score: 8.5/10
Anthony: Even though it takes a fair while to get going, it’s actually a promising effort from Emilia with its wonderfully produced melody. Although she’s a decent singer, her pronunciation issues of the song’s English lyrics seems to be the major setback. It would better if Emilia sings this entirely in Romanian, where I feel she would be much more confident as a performer.
Score: 6/10
Kristin: I really like the melody itself. It’s beautiful and haunting, and Emilia’s voice is good. But the pronunciation is off. Like, way off! I would like the composers to change this to Romanian, same as Pasha Parfeny did in 2013 with Aliona Moon’s “O Mie”. It would become a totally different song and we’d get a powerful ballad sung in a beautiful language. So my score goes to the melody, not the lyrics.
Score: 6/10
Robyn: I keep imagining this song sung by someone like Céline Dion. Yeah, it would sound better, but the lyrics would still be a mess. Emilia’s pronunciation is off, the lyrics frequently emphasise the wrong syllables (“op-PEN-ing door”), and the big emotional climax of the song sounds like vocal warm-up exercises.
Score: 2.5/10
Bogdan: Every ballad that takes more than ten seconds to start is off-putting. When the voice is out of tune, then it gets even worse. Everything rings wrong about this. Bland song, bad voice, poor production, intolerable pronunciation. “What have I done,” Emilia asks herself in the chorus. We’re asking her the same thing.
Score: 2/10
In the Moldovan Wiwi Jury we have 14 Jurors, but only space for 5 reviews. The remaining scores are below:
Deban: 3/10
Denise: 2/10
Cristian: 3/10
Luis: 5/10
Antranig: 8/10
Mikhail: 3/10
Patrick: 5/10
Bernardo: 6/10
William: 4/10
The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 2 and a high of 8.5.
WIWI JURY SCORE: 4.46
6. Valentina Nejel – “Va fi tarziu”
Edd: Seriously!? They decided to give this song a second chance over some of the actually good ones. Or if they wanted crap why didn’t they at least chose something entertaining. I would honestly rather watch (beige) paint dry for 24 hours than have to watch the whole three minutes of this.
Score: 0/10
Anthony: If broadcaster TRM are going to draft in a late replacement, then at least make it a decent one if possible. This feels like as if Valentina’s name has been randomly plucked out of a hat. I’ll give her some credit for singing in her native language and the solo rock guitar towards the end adds a nice touch to it, but it still wouldn’t do any favours to this monotone snoozefest of an entry.
Score: 1/10
Kristin: Well, this was excruciatingly boring. Litesound, please come back, so we don’t have to suffer through this godawful song again. Oh and by the way, the society of rejected 80’s ballads called and kindly asked this NEVER to return again.
Score: 1/10
Robyn: This actually isn’t as bad as some of the other shortlisted songs in O melodie pentru Europa. For a start, Valentina can actually hold tune. The song is the sort of thing a lonely businessman would listen to while drowning his sorrows in a bar in Chisinau late one Tuesday evening. It’s a lovely misery.
Score: 4/10
Bogdan: Was this song written in Communist Romania in the 80’s? I’m having flashbacks from my childhood. Does this girl know that it’s 2016? The fact that “Va fi tarziu” made the cut for the semi-finals gives us the real measure of the quality of this year’s selection in Moldova. #smh
Score: 0/10
In the Moldovan Wiwi Jury we have 14 Jurors, but only space for 5 reviews. The remaining scores are below:
Deban: 3.5/10
Denise: 3/10
Cristian: 3/10
Luis: 4.5/10
Antranig: 7/10
Mikhail: 1.5/10
Patrick: 2/10
Bernardo: 2/10
William: 1/10
The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 0 and a high of 4.5.
WIWI JURY SCORE: 2.42
7. Chriss Jeff – “Good Life”
Edd: Of all of Moldova’s offerings, this one would stand out the most at Eurovision. Whilst almost all countries try to be dark and mystical to impress the juries, Chriss Jeff would stroll on and give us something to smile about. He’s released a new version with more backing vocals, and now it’s even more uplifting. If he can get someone who actually speaks English to re-write the lyrics, I honestly think this could go top ten.
Score: 9.5/10
Anthony: Oh look, it’s Moldova’s very own John Karayiannis! Despite the striking resemblance, Chriss needs to work on making an instant impact like the Cypriot representative, because it looks like he turned up to the live auditions at the last minute. With the endearing feel-good charm of “Good Life”, this could go either way.
Score: 5/10
Kristin: Awwww, its like Moss from The IT Crowd and John Karayiannis had a baby! And this song is cute as hell. Chriss needs to fix his stage presence, he looks unbelievably shy and awkward. That’s definitely a downer for an otherwise cheerful and happy song. I’m getting no bad-a vibes at all.
Score: 7,5/10
Robyn: The song is adorable, but Chriss comes across like a tech worker nervously doing an unrehearsed karaoke performance at an office party. The 25-second instrumental is a desert of awkwardness, with Chriss looking like he has no idea what to do. There’s too much work to be done here.
Score: 4.5/10
Bogdan: Cute song plus quirky and nerdy-looking singer equals an endearing combination. I don’t mind the “la, la, la” lyric — it makes sense here. However, Chriss has a lot of work to do on his voice and stage presence. Something tells me he might struggle with stage fright at the live shows…
Score: 7/10
In the Moldovan Wiwi Jury we have 14 Jurors, but only space for 5 reviews. The remaining scores are below:
Deban: 4/10
Denise: 2/10
Cristian: 4/10
Luis: 3.5/10
Antranig: 2/10
Mikhail: 3.5/10
Patrick: 1/10
Bernardo: 5/10
William: 4/10
The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 1 and a high of 9.5.
WIWI JURY SCORE: 4.21
8. Rodica and Ivan Aculov – “Stop Lying”
Edd: Strong vocals… but when will artists learn that if they can’t speak English well then shouldn’t sing in English? It honestly sounds like they’re taking the mick. And then there’s the song – Ralph Siegel’s pet tortoise wouldn’t even produce a song this cheap.
Score: 0.5/10
Anthony: After Maraaya represented Slovenia last year, it’s over to Moldova for their own husband and wife duo. No lie detectors needed, Ivan hasn’t given Raay a run for his money on the production department with their entry. The chorus gets repetitive at times and their live performance needs sorting out.
Score: 4/10
Kristin: Hope never diiiieees… No, wait! Okay…right… This isn’t Marta and Vaclav! But oh, how they want to be. This could be a powerful duet that oozes with sexual tension and unspoken innuendos, but Rodica and Ivan look more like a twisted sibling-by-adoption duo, struggling to like each other, which is weird, because of them being married and all. Naah… Just stop.
Score: 4/10
Robyn: I’m strangely drawn to the drama of this performance, especially those over-the-top harmonies. I’m not fussed on the song itself (it’s pretty forgettable), but Rodica and Ivan make for an enjoyably gruesome twosome.
Score: 4/10
Bogdan: Although the production of “Stop Lying” has some modern elements, I shan’t be fooled. The lyrics are fine, but other than that, this is an outdated song with an even more outdated style of performance. Not to mention both singers struggle to hit their high notes. All in all, a hot mess. Not going to lie, I’d be shocked if this makes the final.
Score: 4/10
In the Moldovan Wiwi Jury we have 14 Jurors, but only space for 5 reviews. The remaining scores are below:
Deban: 2.5/10
Denise: 2/10
Cristian: 1/10
Luis: 2/10
Antranig: 8.5/10
Mikhail: 3.5/10
Patrick: 5/10
Bernardo: 4/10
William: 1/10
The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 0.5 and a high of 8.5.
WIWI JURY SCORE: 3.08
Do you agree with Wiwi Jury? What do you think about these songs? Which one is your favourite? By the way, don’t forget you can still vote in our Moldova 2016 poll!
Wow they’re all terrible.
Yikes poor Moldova don’t stand a chance with scores like that. I think stop lying is definitely one of the better songs in OMPE that has a good musical backing and some staging potential.