WATCH: Romania’s Ilinca covers her favourite Eurovision 2018 songs

Last year, she yodeled it to seventh place at the Eurovision Grand Final in Kyiv. This year the Romanian singer proved that her heart still beats for Eurovision by judging performances from the Selectia Nationala jury panel — becoming a meme star in the process.

And now, Ilinca Bacila, also known as Yodelinca by her growing army of fans, covered her favourite songs from Eurovision 2018, offering us an insight to whom she rooted for in Lisbon.

The yodeling phenomenon that is Ilinca has been a Eurofan darling ever since she performed “Yodel It!” together with Alex Florea in Kyiv. This week, the singer returned the love by posting a mix of snippets from her favourite Eurovision 2018 songs that she covered in her distinct style, complete with yodeling through the chorus of winner Netta’s “Toy”.

Apart from the winning song, Ilinca covered runner-up Eleni Foureira’s “Fuego”,  Mikolas Josef’s “Lie To Me”, Elina Nechayeva’s “La Forza”, Michael Schulte’s “You Let Me Walk Alone”, Ieva Zasimauskaite’s “When We’re Old”, Amaya y Alfred’s “Tu Cancion”, and Benjamin Ingrosso’s “Dance You Off”.

In the video, Ilinca is seen performing bits of these songs against a white wall, trying to emulate the original stagings too. Her reluctant cat also makes a cameo appearance during “Tu Cancion”. The singer recorded the songs over the last month and she admitted that editing the snippets together was a drag. However, she was happy to share the end result via YouTube.

This was the most difficult video I have ever recorded/edited in my life! But I had so much fun doing it that it doesn’t even matter anymore. I have been working on this for the past month so I really hope you enjoy it! I chose to sing bits of all of my favourite songs from this year’s Eurovision and try to also imitate (if possible) their staging.

While Ilinca was a judge on Selectia Nationala 2018 which resulted in The Humans taking “Goodbye” to Lisbon, she chose to sit out of the national jury for Eurovision 2018, so it is interesting to see what songs she would have picked as her favourites. Judging by how often “Toy” features in the mix, it is safe to assume that Netta’s song was Ilinca’s winner as well.

It is also safe to assume that Ilinca’s love affair with Eurovision is not over yet. We would not be surprised to see the multitalented singer return to the song contest and represent Romania once again. Judging by her popularity and unquestionable singing abilities, we believe it’s just a matter of time until we see her grace the Eurovision stage again.

This is not the first time that Ilinca covered other songs. Last year, she covered her Eurovision 2017 alumn Lucie Jones and Beyoncé.

Ilinca serves up Latin rap realness with Yasiris

Ilinca is not just a cover girl, however. Earlier this month, the Romanian yodelling sensation joined forces with Yasiris, the 2017 winner of Spain’s TV singing competition Gana Con Tu Voz, on “Hasta Manana (MMM)”. Further proving her unbridled versatility and amazing potential, Ilinca raps her way through the bridge with ease. Maybe she got inspirition from Alex Florea?

The video, shot in Javea on Spain’s Costa Blanca, sees Ilinca and Yasiris having fun under in sunny Alicante. “Hasta Manana (MMM)” marks Ilinca’s second musical release this year, after the ballad “Nu acum” which hit the airwaves back in February.

What do you think about Ilinca’s Eurovision 2018 covers? What about her turn as a rapper? And would you like to see Ilinca return to the Eurovision stage? Let us know in the comments!