The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — is in Romania, listening to the 12 semi-finalists of Selectia Nationala 2016. They’re now going to review the only duet of the contest, Doru Todorut feat. Irina Baiant, with their song “The Voice”. Will our jury like their voices or will they voice their negative opinion? Let’s find out!
Doru Todorut feat. Irina Baiant – “The Voice”
“The Voice” reviews
Antranig: Not for the first time in this national final season, I’m given the impression that three or four separate songs have been cut and pasted together. Each part on its own is really good but when putting them all together, I’m completely confused. “The Voice” would not be a bad choice for Romania but it needs some consistency.
Score: 6/10
Bogdan: I know, I know. Pop opera doesn’t do well at Eurovision, yadda yadda flop. However, I love these two, their voices, their chemistry, and I think that a live rendition of the song will do it justice. Until then, “The Voice” is like a cross between Cezar and Paula & Ovi. Which is actually not that bad, come to think of it. And, with a bit of a revamp and a better arrangement, it should score a perfect 10.
Score: 9/10
Deban: Pick a genre and stick to it! This was a decent effort until it hit the 2:07 mark. The disco beat threw me off piste, and any glimpse of my recovery since then has been on a slippery slope. Opera may not be Eurovision’s favourite music category, but any genre done tastefully will find an appreciative audience, and a loyal fanbase. “The Voice” is too gimmicky, and midway it loses its sense of direction.
Score: 4.5/10
Luis: What’s going on with the weird transitions this year? “The Voice” was a gorgeous duet between two well blending voices until that cheap disco backtrack came in and buried it all. I could take it without that and without the opera, but that’s just personal preference. As for the rest, it’s a decent song. Maybe losing the opera and the disco would make it boring. Alas, we’ll never know.
Score: 6/10
Robyn: This reminds me of Elize and Rikard’s “One By One” from Melfest 2015 – both as a performance that combines pop and opera, and for the uplifting theme of the lyrics. But “One By One” had a strong thread that helped tie the two vocal styles together. “The Voice”, however, sounds more disparate. Whenever Irina and Doru are singing together, one of them always sounds like they don’t quite belong.
Score: 6/10
William: Cezar Ouatu can bring opera to Eurovision because he understands how to make it pop. This pair does not and they seemed to have confused Eurovision for a Phantom of the Opera audition. The tempo change two minutes in definitely makes it more interesting, but by then I’ve left for my intermission — the opening is just too drawn out and boring.
Score: 5/10
In the Romanian Wiwi Jury we have 12 Jurors, but only space for 6 reviews. The remaining scores are below:
Dayana: 5/10
Denise: 4.5/10
Edd: 5/10
Patrick: 8.5/10
Ramadan: 5/10
Sami: 5/10
The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 4.5 and a high of 9.
Wiwi Jury Score: 5.6/10
The semi-final of Selectia Nationala 2016 will take place on 4 March in Baia Mare. An expert jury will select four songs to advance to the final, while televoters will save two more acts. The winner will be chosen by 100% televote on 6 March.
Do you agree with Wiwi Jury? What do you think about “The Voice”? By the way, don’t forget you can still vote in our Romania 2016 poll!
For our list of Romania 2016 rankings, click here
For more Eurovision Romania news, click here
Photo: Facebook
Yaaaawn!!! As a member of DeepCentral, Doru has much much much better songs, I din’t get why he got involved in this blah song… Not cool, Doru, not cool! Maybe he should have convinced Delia to participate with ‘Gura ta’, it would have been so much more interesting!
Bogdan H., nu vedem deloc la fel Selectia Nationala ;))