The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continues to rate and review the 41 competing entries of Eurovision 2019. Next we take a look at Romania, where Ester Peony has “On a Sunday”. Do we also see things happening for her on a Saturday? Read on to find out?
Ester Peony – “On a Sunday”
“On a Sunday” reviews
Lucy: This was my initial number one in the early stages of song releases, but it’s managed to stay in my top three now we have all 41 songs. The hook of “pay-ay-ay-ay-ay” is so good and it sticks. The beat of those drums brings you in and doesn’t let go, and the video to accompany the track is as haunting as the song itself. This is art, and Romania’s best effort in many years. I can’t see this not bringing them back into the final.
Score: 9.5/10
Angus: Sunday is meant to be a day of rest, but listen to “On a Sunday” one too many times and a sleepless night lies ahead. Romania has a whole world of good things going for it this year. Ester, for starters, is entirely captivating and has a killer vocal at her disposal. Add on top “On a Sunday” — itself at different times an ethnic ballad, electropop banger, flush with stuttering synths and entrancing beats — and you have a powerhouse package on your hands. Normally I turn in the opposite direction of darkness, but in this instance I want to embrace it.
Score: 8.5/10
Kristin: “On a Sunday” is quite a moody song. It delves into several genres, such as R&B, soul and blues and Ester Peony is definitely determined to do better than The Humans did last year in Lisbon and she just might do so, if the staging is right. She has a nice voice and is clearly passionate about what she’s doing. However for me, the song falls kind of flat. It’s not bad by any means. It’s just sort of middle-of-the-road and leaves little impression. But if Ester nails the staging and live performance, she might change my mind. Until then, I’m rather unimpressed.
Score: 5/10
Deban: Ester Peony’s delicate voice offers an interesting counterbalance to this tragic narrative. The core theme here is unrequited love, and a painful breakup. Unveiling a vision of beauty whilst recognising the trauma of love, the gritty soundscape here is set in Dracula’s castle. Sophisticated in tone and packed with artistic merit, this entry will hopefully launch the career of an emerging star, and place Romania on the left side of the final scoreboard.
Score: 8/10
Josh: “On a Sunday” is a strong song that tells an emotional story that draws you in, and Ester’s voice just oozes an innate unique charisma. You feel her pain and longing, hoping her man comes back to her one day. While some may say this is a boring song that stays on one level for too long, the driving beat and Ester’s masterful vocals take us for a three-minute ride that you almost can’t believe happens. The guitar instrumentation sounds almost country-western or ripped from the sound track of a Western movie, but the driving synth beats take this into a whole other realm. Don’t underestimate its potential!
Score: 9.5/10
Robyn: “On a Sunday” wasn’t even on my radar earlier in the year but lately it’s become an earworm that’s proved impossible to shift. Ester brings a cool, almost jazzy quality to the song, mixed in with gothic electronic sounds. The song promises to bring strong staging to the Tel Aviv venue and there should be no question of Romania making the grand final this year.
Score: 8/10
In the Wiwi Jury we have 30 jurors but only have room for six reviews. The remaining scores are below:
| Anthony: 7/10
Antony: 3/10 Antranig: 6.5/10 Barnabas: 8.5/10 Bernardo: 6/10 Calvin: 8/10 Chris: 6.5/10 Essi: 7/10 Florian: 8/10 Izhar: 6/10 Jack: 5/10 Jonathan: 6.5/10 |
Julian: 7.5/10
Luis: 6.5/10 Lukas: 7/10 Mikhail: 7.5/10 Oliver: 10/10 Pablo: 5/10 Renske: 7/10 Ron: 7.5/10 Sebastian: 6.5/10 Tobias: 3/10 William: 9/10 |
We have removed the highest and lowest scores prior to calculating the average. This is to remove outliers and potential bias. We have removed a low of 3 and a high of 10.
Wiwi Jury verdict: 7.04/10
What do you think of this song? Share your own score and review below!
Guys chill. Just because this song ranked higher than some of your favorites doesn’t 100% reflect their placing in ESC 2019. Eye Cue got a 7 last year, yet placed 18th in their SF and Romania, which got a 4, placed 11th in their SF.
But, seriously, it’s only less than a month from the semifinal and we are still in debate about the Romanian selection? Good God, get a grip, girl.
Unrelatedly, Ester got 6 as her running order, consider her safe for qualification before the first rehearsal. After each rehearsal, then we can holistically review each entry since that’ll be their full package.
Hahahaha! That’s all I have to say.
I want to try what you guys have taken while reviewing this one. Just joking. But I don’t really understand how a dull, bland and unisteresting song like this one gets a 7.04. Taking the resuls Croatia and Latvia got last year with better songs in the same style, I don’t even think Romania is a qualifier. Romania is in my 37th place. 3. Greece (8.5) 5. Lithuania (8) 8. Portugal (7.75) 13. Armenia (7) 14. Austria (7) 15. Hungary (7) 24. Latvia (6) 26. Belarus (6) 28. Finland (6) 29. Serbia (6) 30. Russia (5.75) 32. Poland (5.75) 33.… Read more »
Boring. I’ll join the 3/10 points-jurors.
This song is SOOOOO BORING!
Really? I am quite shocked about this score. This is one of the few songs which I don’t remember anything about, even the chorus…
The Pay – ay – ay – ay is really not that good a hook at all, and whilst it will stick with some after one listen, it’s not the kind of catchy hook that’s getting people voting for it. This has a shot at qualifying because of the Romanian diaspora in the televote, but if a country like Ireland sent this it would be going nowhere.
Judging by already months of front stage exposure, the Romanian response to the song is very close to 0. And rest of Europe response is half an inch higher. To qualify this song would need a wow-wow-wow element from the staging and a love from juries Romania never had. In itself the song and the singing has bottom list written all over it.
We already knew how the wiwi guys feel about this one..despite their impartiality.
Anyways, the song for me is just there. I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it. I hope the staging in Tel Aviv won’t just be Ester standing there giving out to the audience (ala Franka and Laura Risotto) I don’t want to feel assaulted while I’m trying to watch ESC. Good staging though will make this qualify I think. Romania have qualified with much worse. 6/10
Cheers for the clarification Una 🙂
Franka and Laura really annoyed me last year with their staging. These angry women made me feel like I was responsible for their problems haha
I am in love with this song, I can listen to it all day long. I am though a bit worried about the marine life visual effects if they do them for the stage performance. I read here IIRC there will be no drummers? I loved the drummers during the national final, the song welcomes rhythm/beat. I don’t know, that should be incorporated somehow, at least in my mind. I am not saying I know better. But still, it’s my #1. I changed my top several times already – other than my #1, that is.
Romania is my 5th this year. I can already smell the downvotes from the grand ol’ USA as I type, but I really love this song. It’s relatively catchy, dark, it has a nice instrumental, and it’s sung by a really good singer. I hope this qualifies next month! I wish good luck to Ester and all of Romania 🙂
For me, it’s just an average song. Nothing special, impactful nor memorable. Borderline qualifier in an arguably tougher semi. Wasn’t my favourite in Romanian final. 6/10
Is there a recap somewhere of the songs rated so far ?
This song sounds much better in live. I don’t like the studio version. Too much artificial effects on her voice.
Found it sorry
https://wiwibloggs.com/2019/02/03/eurovision-2019-reviews-rankings-wiwi-jury/
I love this one. Ester is simply a sublime vocalist. The song gives me tingles. I feel her pain, her emotion, her desperation down on my spine. How funny wiwi announced the scores of my two favourites, Greece and Romania the same day.
Yeah! Actually we have three strong songs reviewed in a row – Portugal, Greece, Romania! All of them are in my Top 12.
Portugal is all yours brate.
Same here. 3 songs that I deeply enjoy. I’m already expecting a sacrificial lamb coming next. 😀
If it’s Montenegro, I’ll have evenly distributed points on my current list. 🙂
That is a very sad case, indeed.
I think it’s a tasteful and harmonious song. We’re having a bunch of dark songs recently in the contest, but this one excels by adopting a bluesy approach, not only in the way the guitar and the vocals punctuate it, but also in the “consuming pain” vibe. I love how Ester performs it with all her body, especially her arms. Using a haunted house to illustrate a haunted relationship was a fun idea. I like how she also becomes a character in this gloomy scenery. But they must refine the visual effects, otherwise it may look too silly. 8/10
They already have the difficult part figured out, since they have a clear concept. I hope they’ll now focus on improving every particular aspect of it.
I would lile it more if it wasn’t for all the ‘uh’, ‘ah’, ‘eh’ and other similar endless sounds. I find them very irritating. And 7.04 is too much I think. For me it’s a solid 6/10.
The fact that this got a lot of 8s and 9s is surprising given that everyone hated it when it won Selectia Nationala. Personally the song does nothing for me and it’s telling that the bookies currently don’t think it’ll qualify.
Actually, On A Sunday was mostly in people’s top 10s of Selectia nationala, so very little people hated it. Until it won, that is, but that hatred was mostly due to the way it won, rather than the song itself.
This song will do very well with the jury.
Romania has lost the direction. Their last good effort has been Yodel it. And that’s much said. This is not going through.
Kinda backed yourselves into a corner with this one.
I am generally not a huge fan of the Romanian entries, but I have to say that I quite like this song. It does not fully thrill me, but I can really appreciate its dark gothic vibe (reinforced by a good video). Ester does a really good job and she maches the song very well. Although I tend not to like songs based on “hey hey hey’s” or “ay ay ay’s”, in this case it actually works really good. Romania is this year my number 12 and I would be dissapointed if they didn’t qualify. 2. Greece (9.0/10) 8. Russia… Read more »
I used to like it more, now it just sounds boring to me. It’s an “ok song”. I think she will struggle with the public vote outside the diaspora zone, but the juries might push it to qualification.
6.0/10.
Well done Una, for a fantastic review. 🙂
By the way, why didn’t this review come out on Sunday? Missed opportunity, Wiwibloggs.
Well it wasn’t September either. 😉
Yes, I can’t stop crying.
I was asked to do an in-depth analysis of this song, but unfortunately I cannot write the review for reasons that I’m not able to publicly reveal at this time. Notably, Una has pretty much already revealed all of the positive aspects of the song (well done Una), so all that I have left to write about are the negatives, which I don’t want to do. Very basically, I think this song is in a 12/8 time signature (or it might be 6/8) – it contains some jazz references, drum n’ bass, and “horror soundtrack” moments. My overall feeling from… Read more »
Ester lived in Canada for some time.
Stays at my playlist, one of the darkest tracks with one of the most successful running order in the competition.
This is a border line qualifier for me. I don’t really like the ayayayyay parts of this song < lol, or this music video. HOWEVER it's catchy, it's stuck in my brain, and I know lots of Eurofans like it so i'd give On a Sunday 6.5/10
Guys, it’s been (exactly) 2 months already! We don’t need to go back to that.
Wow, lots of respect (Divaz say hi) for writing such an in-depth analisys!
“Give me a little respect”. Still have this song in my head. 🙂
Unfortunately, I can’t understand the love for this one
Easy, tt’s a matter of taste.
ROMANIA – Winner of one of the strongest national finals is unsurprisingly a very good song! It can seem quite linear, but it has so much going on behind it. Let’s start with intense lyrics and Ester’s natural theatricality to convey that edgy feel. It has elements of Jazz and Country subtely interweaving next to an atypical chorus with a hook of a repeated “hey”. Most songs couldn’t sustain that form, but here it surprisingly works. It’s unnerving, but fascinating watching her plot and shift between being ominous and vulnerable. It may feel long and aimless at times, but it… Read more »
In fact, we have freaking ton of girls singing about their (ex)boyfriends this year:
– Romania
– Belarus
– Latvia
– Serbia
– Cyprus
– Greece
– Armenia
– Ireland
– Moldova
William and deban for how long are u gonna pretend u really like this song??
As long as that song exist, I guess. The song itself is good, no doubt.
Yeah it was never a bad song, and Ester is a good artist. It was just from a National Final where the audience vote vastly disagreed with the Jury vote in a very big way.
Why choose Ester when you know Laura Bretan could have reached top 5 !
yawn
“Rigged scores accusations starting at 3… 2… 1…”
Not, but seriously. “On a Sunday” is a solid song, filling the gap of that “dark gothic” genre, like Ukraine last year or “Skeletons” in 2017. Tad repetitve, and Ester should learn how to control her arms movements, but I guess it’s memorable enough to get to the final. 7/10
Uhm, Telemoveis got a 6.72 and THIS is supposed to be a 7.04 now? Whatever you say wiwibloggs…
It is perhaps because of the divisiveness of the microtonality of “Telemoveis”. Sadly, some friends have told me they can’t stand listening to Portugal’s song because it sounds “out of tune”, and one even said that it makes him feel “sick”. 🙁
Or, are you suggesting that Romania’s song has been scored too highly?
I’m not even bothered about the higher average rating (honestly, I imagine a lot of people might give Conan a 1/10 or 2/10 to go along with those 10s) but what bothers me is the amount of jurors who gave Romania a 9+. It’s a pleasant song but come on…it’s not that exciting.
I have no connection to wiwibloggs, but I am ready to bet actual money that Romania will do better than Portugal.
When On a Sunday gets higher than telemovies….
I am honestly just talking about the song now, so for my review it doesn’t matter if it is from Romania or another country, sung by Bella/Laura/Ester… Only the SONG:
I love this! Mysterious atmosphere, charming, vulnerability combined with strength, playing with sounds (ey ey ey), really really strong entry! My 4th place overall! 9/10.
A decent effort and the staging at the NF really popped. Romania seemed to have better choices. The song is not very immediate though and may struggle with a lot of similarly themed songs in the semi. She is vocally good though. Like the dark edge. A 6.5/10. The running order with Similar themed songs around is bad , reduces half a point.There is diaspora but the NF drama seems to have irked them , another point lost. A 50% chance to qualify.
About the running order, the MYESC has shown the statistics of running order and 6 is one of the best numbers to qualify.
The effect of running order doesn’t depend only on the number you’re going at but at songs that surround you too! North Macedonia in Semi 2 going at number 17 should have been a great running order except it’s Not cause it’s between Azerbaijan(Turkish diaspora , pop song) on one side and Netherlands/Norway (pop songs ,fan favorites) on the other
Reminds me a lot of Black Velvet (the elvis song)
I’m sorry, but I wholeheartedly doubt that Dear father could have been any defining moment. Yes, it would have been a far better choice than this mushy, grey song, but it wasn’t a winner in my eyes.
I’m still VERY enthusiastic about the Netherlands as well as Italy and Slovenia. 🙂 (My 1st, 2nd and 4th place) But yeah I know what you mean. Maybe I’m a bit biased, because I’m not the biggest fan of Dear father myself. I can see the potential tho and at least it would have been a song many people have a strong opinion on.
I detest gushing religious songs so it was a no from me. bella was my favorite but Ester will do ok I Think. I like it. I’m not wild over it as much better stuff in the contest.
I like the song, but seriously? A 7? You’re delusional
Well, we all now. don’t we?
A 7 reallyyy????
I know right! I am also shocked that it is so low, because as you see in my comment above, I gave it a 9.0 😛 😛
Yes, me too. I gave it a 10.