Wiwi Jury Romania 2018 The HUMANS, Teodora Dinu, Dora Gaitanovici

The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — is in Romania, judging the 15 finalists of Selectia Nationala 2018. We finish with the last three qualifiers, who won semi-final 5: The HUMANS, Dora Gaitanovici and Teodora Dinu. Will we agree with the Romanian jury, who picked them for the national final on Sunday? Let’s find out!

The HUMANS – “Goodbye”

“Goodbye” reviews and rankings

Anthony: The HUMANS are lucky to have Cristina Caramarcu — a beautiful vocalist who brightens up the stage — as the lead singer. But part of me feels that as a casual viewer, the message and emotion the band are trying to deliver just isn’t reaching its full potential. There’s work to be done as Romania wouldn’t want to say goodbye to their qualifying hopes in Lisbon.

Score: 6/10

Barnabas: I usually like rock at Eurovision and at national selections, yet “Goodbye” is a very flat piece of pop rock, lacking the energy that this genre usually displays. The song slowly builds, but as the guitars and the drums kick in, it gets tired after just 20 seconds, and hasn’t got enough power to get up and capture me. The HUMANS miss a chance in the front of an open goal.

Score: 6.5/10

Jonathan: “Goodbye” starts off promising and the transition from cello-driven backing to a rockier song is a great change of pace and gives the song some good dynamics. But there’s still something I’m not quite connecting with, despite vocalist Cristina’s gaze down the camera and weird request for us not to cry. While The HUMANS may be going for a more emotional rock-song, it still feels too much like a random concert performance for the viewer to gain any real emotive attachment. Maybe with some slightly altered staging, this will come across better in the final.

Score: 6.5/10

Robyn: Well, this is just a dark raincloud of misery. The HUMANS offer a blend of 1980s rock and lyrics that are so miserable they seem in desperate need of a “u ok hun?” There is a place for such bleak, existential lyrics, but the secret is not to smother it in cheesy, unenjoyable retro rock.

Score: 4/10

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:

Antranig: 6/10

Bogdan: 6/10

Luis: 4/10

Sebastian: 6.5/10

 

 

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 6.5.

Wiwi Jury Verdict: 5.83/10

Dora Gaitanovici – “Fara tine”

“Fara tine” reviews and rankings

Antranig: Dressed like Emmelie De Forest and serving some Loreen-esque staging, the only thing here which can’t be compared to a Eurovision winner is the song itself. “Fara tine” is a mediocre song which looks very good on stage. The song needs to stand on its own merits and it simply doesn’t do it here. Nevertheless, Dora is a promising performer and I’d like to see more from her.

Score: 5.5/10

Bogdan: Dora’s song — and it really is her song, as the 17-year old impressively wrote it herself — got stuck in my mind after her flawless performance in Sighisoara. The lyrics are very poetic and go beyond the simple “I am not myself without you,” and I think an English version could sound just as good. The staging needs a bit of work, but otherwise Dora shines bright like a real star in Selectia Nationala.

Score: 8/10

Luis: Dora’s vocals are impressive. She’s in control and handles the stage incredibly great despite her young age. That’s a pro for any possible future appearances in Selectia Nationala. This year’s entry has only that to be praised, the rest is nothing new. Just a power ballad with an interpretative dancer. Very pleasant to listen to, but also very easy to forget. I’m afraid Romania will land in Lisbon “fara tine”, Dora.

Score: 6/10

Sebastian: As Dora delivers a superbly flawless vocal performance of “Fara tine”, it’s evident that we’re watching a future star in the making. The interpretive dancer and Loreen-esque staging is an unnecessary addition, detracting from Dora as the true star of this act.

Score: 7/10

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:

Anthony: 8/10

Barnabas: 7.5/10

Jonathan: 7.5/10

Robyn: 6/10

 

 

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 5.5 and a high of 8.

Wiwi Jury Verdict: 7/10

Teodora Dinu – “Fly”

“Fly” reviews and rankings

Anthony: Last time I heard from Teodora, she competed with a song written by a Brit. While her performance back then lacked that extra spark, she really connected to the viewers now and delivered her sassy attitude with some slick staging. However, the single-word use of “fly” in the refrain ends up looking like filler material and could do with a slight rework.

Score: 6.5/10

Barnabas: Those harmonies are great, and the staging concept is memorable, however the singer’s shaky voice ruins the feeling that she and her team created. But let’s not underestimate her: Teodora could be a dark horse on Saturday.

Score: 7/10

Jonathan: This is one of the few finalists with any form of proper staging concept. However, that’s only a good thing if it links to the song. This one does not, and just gets more bizarre as the song progresses. The movements of the backing singers are completely random (and their vocals are a mess on their own). The odd structure of “Fly” doesn’t help things. The bridge feels rather out of place and comes in way too early – most likely because there’s no proper verse between the second and third chorus. Teodora is right about one thing: “nothing makes sense”.

Score: 6/10

Robyn: A couple of years ago, a song like this would have been a perfectly ordinary Eurovision entry. But now something has changed and this isn’t good enough. It’s a still decent pop song, Teodora and friends have put a lot of thought into the staging, and yet there’s something missing. For a song that’s trying to have an uplifting message, it seems far removed from the emotional theme of the song.

Score: 6/10

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:

Antranig: 6.5/10

Bogdan: 7/10

Luis: 5.5/10

Sebastian: 7.5/10

 

 

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 5.5 and a high of 7.5.

Wiwi Jury Verdict: 6.5/10

SEE OUR LIST OF ROMANIA 2018 RANKINGS HERE

FOLLOW ALL OF OUR ROMANIA EUROVISION NEWS HERE

4 Comments
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AngieP
AngieP
6 years ago

The HUMANS: This is boring. It goes nowhere. 5/10
Dora Gaitanovici: Beautiful ballad. I like the chorus better here. And I love it’s in Romanian. 6.5/10
Teodora Dinu: Another beautiful ballad. It starts really well, but the chorus isn’t strong enough. 6 /10

Szilard
Szilard
6 years ago

Kind of stupid scores. The Humans is one of the best songs ever at romanian ESC. You promote ordinary!

Giorgio
Giorgio
6 years ago
Reply to  Szilard

I don’t know…I’m reading the reviews and I kinda agree

AurelianTamisan
AurelianTamisan
6 years ago

Goodbye – 5.5/10
Fara Tine – 6.5/10
Fly – 6.5/10