Romania: Wiwi Jury reviews TIRI, Claudia Andas and Feli

The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continues to review the 15 finalists of Romania‘s Selectia Nationala 2018. We move on to the three qualifiers who won semi-final 4: TIRI, Claudia Andas and Feli. Will we agree with the Romanian jury, who sent them to the national final? Let’s find out!

TIRI – “Desert de sentimente”

“Desert de sentimente” reviews and rankings

Antranig: There’s too much going on in the live performance. The interpretive dancers look out of place at times, the backdrop features roller coasters and traffic moving along at high speed during the slower parts of the song and it feels like they are rushing to finish the song. The song itself is a decent effort with plenty of interesting instrumentation and great storytelling. They need to fix the staging if this is going to work.

Score: 6/10

Bogdan: The song has a jazzy feel and it risks going all over the place until it is reined in by the excellent but problematic violin. Unlike other songs, which are lifted by the staging, in this case the omnipresent (for Selectia Nationala) barefoot dancers are distracting. If I were TIRI, I’d simplify things and think outside the box — or, if I wanted to be edgy, I’d embrace the guy instead of the woman at the end.

Score: 7/10

Luis: “Desert de sentimente” has very good points. TIRI is also a very competent performer, but the staging lets him down a lot. The interpretative dance needs to go, and he has to give the track a bit more of oomph. At the moment it’s a very pleasant song, but pleasant songs don’t win Eurovision. You’re singing about drama, so make it dramatic!

Score: 6/10

Sebastian: What do you get when you combine interpretive dance with footage of a roller coaster? A hot mess. “Desert de sentimente” isn’t a wreck of a song, and TIRI’s vocals are strong, but a mishmash of staging, video and mood have created the wrong atmosphere. It leaves me feeling confused and underwhelmed.

Score: 5/10

In our Selectia Nationala Wiwi Jury, we have 8 jurors but only room for 4 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 5 and a high of 7.

Wiwi Jury Verdict: 5.92/10

Claudia Andas – “The One”

“The One” reviews and rankings

Anthony: I could understand why the juries ranked this highly. However, as we found out with Malta last year, it’s going to take more than Claudia’s vocal talent if the song isn’t up to scratch. And this is the type of song that would struggle under the televoters at Eurovision. If this is “The One” that ends up in Lisbon, it’ll feel like an anticlimax after “Yodel It!”.

Score: 5/10

Barnabas: Claudia definitely has that kind of voice that many rock bands would love to have for their vocalist. The song itself though just kicks in very late, and it felt like an eternity until the guitars and the drums finally joined in. A revamp could really elevate the whole package. And some better backing vocalists.

Score: 7/10

Jonathan: If you need to put two key changes into a song to make it interesting, then you know the beginning probably isn’t that great. A dated rock ballad, the first chorus of the song completely bypassed me and blended right into the verses. The same almost happened for the second chorus, but then I saw “The One” written on the backdrop and realised we were probably there. The fact that the jury gave this more points than Feli is the gag of the selection.

Score: 4.5/10

Robyn: Claudia seems to gargle with the same brand of gravel-infused mouthwash that Bonnie Tyler uses. She has that rich, rocky voice and is perfectly suited to “The One”. But the song isn’t quite as good as it should be. About two minutes into it, it suddenly goes off the rails, and throws in random key changes and loses the feeling of heartache and attitude.

Score: 5.5/10

In our Selectia Nationala Wiwi Jury, we have 8 jurors but only room for 4 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 4 and a high of 7.

Wiwi Jury Verdict: 5.25/10

Feli – “Buna de iubit”

“Buna de iubit” reviews and rankings

Antranig: This is such a fun, upbeat song so I can’t understand why the performers are all so static on stage. They could turn this into an epic dance number that could grace the Eurovision top 10 but not if it is staged as it currently is. “Buna de iubit” has the most potential for Romania but it requires a lot of work to achieve the success it deserves.

Score: 7/10

Bogdan: While the stark outfits and lack of movement can be explained by Feli’s mourning, I am happy to see a lot of smiles and to hear Feli singing so beautifully. I hope that she can elevate the staging for the national final, because I am 100% behind the empowering message of the song and I would love to see Romania represented by a girls’ anthem in Lisbon this year.

Score: 9/10

Luis: I’m reviewing this song while breaking the replay button. “Buna de iubit” is all we need from Romania this year. Fun, sass, infectious and ridiculously catchy, Feli is serving a party anthem. The semi-final performance wasn’t her best, but the fact that the show was held in a cave and it was less than 10ºC inside may have influenced it. Probably Lisbon’s heat in May would fit this entry better.

Score: 8.5/10

Sebastian: “Buna de iubit” is “Despacito” done right. Feli brings amazing sass, both vocally and physically, to a song that is so upbeat that brings the inner Latina out of everyone. Feli hasn’t forgotten her roots — keeping enough of a Romanian connection through its language and lyrics. While I’m much more of a fan of her audition and video clip rendition than her semi-final performance, I must say, “Buna de iubit” — what a bop!

Score: 9/10

In our Selectia Nationala Wiwi Jury, we have 8 jurors but only room for 4 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 5 and a high of 9.

Wiwi Jury Verdict: 8.17/10

SEE OUR LIST OF ROMANIA 2018 RANKINGS HERE

FOLLOW ALL OF OUR ROMANIA EUROVISION NEWS HERE