And we finally have some insight into Romania’s songs choices for Eurovision 2020! Roxen has posted snippets of her five vibrant songs on her Instagram, teasing what’s to come. This is accompanied by artwork so we also get an idea of theme. The songs are: “Alcohol You”, “Storm”, “Beautiful Disaster”, “Colours” and “Cherry Red”. They will each be presented in Selecția Națională 2020.
All five are modern and high-quality. They are artistic, powerful and from what we’ve heard, worthy of a great result for Romania. This of course will please many fans after their last two results — including in 2018 when they didn’t qualify for the first time ever.
We will get the full songs at 8pm Romanian time (7pm CET, 6pm GMT). These will be uploaded to Roxen’s official YouTube channel – make sure to take a peek then! We will be also posting full analysis of the tracks upon release, so come and sound off with us.
Who is Roxen?
Larisa Roxana Giurgiu was born in Cluj in the Transylvania region. She has been involved with music from a young age. She described her dream of performing: “As a child, I participated in various competitions and festivals, but I always wanted to make music at the highest level and dreamed of performing on stage and addressing the audience.”
Roxen is currently the third most-played artist on Romanian radio. Her music and style has seen her compared to artists like Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa.
In September, Roxen was a featured vocalist on SICKOTOY’s “You Don’t Love Me”. The track is a dark, driving piece with English lyrics. The song was playlisted internationally and so far has clocked up over 4.5 million YouTube views.
In November, Roxen released her solo debut single “Ce-ti Canta Dragostea”. The electronic track has a folk-pop tinge with Romanian lyrics. To date, it has enjoyed more than 8.7 million views on YouTube.
Have you listened to the snippets? Which is your favourite and why? Do you think one fo these songs (or all of them) could get Romania back into the final of Eurovision? Let us know in the comments below!
1. Alcohol You and 2. Colors… I am listening to all 5 on repeat on my Youtube account. Actually, I swap around between Alcohol and Colors songs being my #1. Romania is going for it this year!!
We Have No Choice but to Stan!!!
Alcohol you to win the whole damn contest
LOOOOOL Alcohol You is better than all at melfest 1000%
For my the winner it’s Alcohol You, I love it
2nd and 3rd cherry red y beautiful disaster
And absolutely a no for colors and storm
Beautiful Disaster is stunning!
The one to go with is ‘alcohol you’. But the wordplay with call you-alcohol you, doesn’t make sense and takes off the beautiful melody for me. Makes me wonder, are we cool yet? Bb I’ll not cohol you, cause I’m done
Wow I didn’t expect such good songs from Romania. I have 2 favorites Alcohol you and Colors. Good luck Roxen.
1-2. Colors
1-2. Alcohol You
3. Cherry Red
Others are meh
I agree, except swapping 2 & 1
Standouts are alcohol you and cherry red.
Now we just need to see which one of them roxen performs better live.
Same. I wouldn’t know what to choose. Both have potential
“Not good for a family show”? Families may watch Eurovision, but I’d be cautious in calling it a family show. Is it any less family-friendly than Hatari or Lordi?
That’s just the lyric video. She isn’t even lip-syncing.
I think this year is going to be a pretty even split between ballads and bops. The best song options for a lot of the national finals coming down the pike are mostly ballads in my opinion (“Alcohol You” for Romania, “Beautiful Lie” for Estonia, “Oculis Videre” for Iceland), but we also have some astronomical bops either confirmed (Lithuania, Czech Republic, Latvia, Armenia), promised (Ireland), or very likely (Finland, Israel, Serbia, Sweden). I like an even split. Prevents either a 2008 (almost all upbeat mindless stuff) or a 1994 (wall-to-wall ballads).
The only issue is how it’s spread out. I don’t want ballads to cancel each other out in semi one or bops to cancel each other out in semi two.
Also: we at least know Lithuania is going to qualify. Call it however you’d like for the rest, but I’d be shocked if Lithuania don’t advance with this amount of hype and a semi that could be full of slower songs.
I think it will be a great year with a lot of good songs. Happy to be there in Rotterdam the 16th of May.
Agreed! Very excited. Wish I could go.
Finished listening and tbh none of the 5 songs really stood out 😐 Alcohol You might be the best option for a top 15 finish
Seriously ?How old are you?
What my age has to do with my musical taste? I’m grown enough. Chains on You is my fav this year so far, whatchu got to say ba dat?
I mean chains on you is.. stale at best and only a Eurofan of a certain age would think that liking it makes him/her hip or cool.
yiiiiikes
None of them are qualityor can quilify
True, either too generic or boring
“Alcohol You” is a play on words (“I’ll ca-hall-you” – I’ll call you – “when I’m drunk”). I think it’s kinda clever.
Alcohol you and Cherry red for me.
Very promising Roxen!
Lol I completely forgot that it was a multi choice and the song still to choose , I just came out on Youtube recommended me the song STORM and I said WTF. Romania likes to stay in the SF now. I’m going to listen to the other songs now.
OMG!!! Just finished listening to the full songs on her youtube page and Alcohol You is so so so special and Cherry Red is the Banger of this year! So hard to choose. I feel it has to be Alcohol You FOR THE WIN in May!
They’re also uploaded on her channel.
Honestly not a fan of any of these songs. Most are generic, “have heard them before” kind of tunes. Live staging and vocals will tell the tale!
Omg Cherry Red is amazing!
Sounds promising! I like the tone of her voice a lot. However, the first 2 songs are lyrically quite cringy, and the last 2 don’t grip me as much. So based on this snippet, I’d go with ‘Beautiful Disaster’. An edgy sound, which gives staging potential and brings something different. All sound well produced I should add.
alcoholyou for the win
Hmmm, very short snippets but promising at the same time. I’ll judge them more upon full release but I will say I didn’t not(grammar? who know’s I suck with grammar XD) enjoy any of the five snippets. So I am excited for Romania this year. Color and Storm were my favorite snippets but like I said, will judge upon full releases later today/night
Alcoholyou sounds really promising
I say that we should first listen entirely to the songs and only then give our opinions. Comparing them to something else or saying that they are generic is a little ridiculous since we’ve heard only a few seconds.
Am I the only one who thinks her singing voice sounds just a little bit like Halsey’s? I guess I like her voice more than Halsey’s though since Halsey tends to annoy me while Roxen isn’t so far.
These sound promising but I can’t pick a favorite just yet since this is definitely not enough to judge on.
Take a drink every time a song called Storm shows up :-p
Inb4 one of the unrevealed internal selection songs is also called Storm.
I like Cherry Red and Alcoholyou so far
Beautiful Disaster sounds unique
The others sound polished but quite generic
cherry red <3
Beautiful disaster is the most interesting.
I don’t know if anyone knows the Korean singer Suran, but I just realised Roxen has a very similar voice. Beautiful!
Another one’s that mumbling. Oh God! Why does female singers always have to sound like this these days?? Sing so that we can hear the lyrics! Jeez, and not very original! I thought that was something everyone was looking for. Not with Romania it seems..
And thats ladies and gentlemen how you revamp a national selection with just 5 quality entries. Take notes, BBC
Aren’t Beautiful Disaster & Colours the same songs that were already in the Bulgarian pre-selection for Eurovision 2018??? They really sound more Bulgarian than from Romania anyway.
What a pleasant surprise! Beautiful disaster or cherry red would be a major contender.
I think those are the worst songs. Billie Eilish wannabe.
Stop moaning.
I prefer Cherry Red but all sound good, but Cherry Red could really stand out and do well. And with the reveal of these songs, we only have the Israeli and Croatian songs left to be revealed.
They all sound really good, welcome back to the final Romania. I think Cherry Red will be my favorite.
I absolutely love the sound of Beautiful disaster!
All sound fresh, polished and contemporary, though nothing really stands out as a winner.
They all try to imitate the current style of pop music, therefore there isn’t much uniqueness about the songs, coming from a music label. My favourite is probably “Alcohol You”.
They actually sound pretty good. Five strong songs and just one artist. That’s better than most of the NFs or some famous artists. I wonder what is MIHAI thinking right now, because these songs are far better than what he’s been releasing for the last 10 years.
From the snippets, I would go for Alcoholicyou, Colors or Cherry Red.
Nothing really stands out for me, all of them kinda trying to imitate what’s currently popular in the pop industry, very polished and current though, my favourite one is maybe Alcohol You.
Two songs sound like Billie Eilish and three like Dua Lipa, which isn’t bad necessarily. From the snippets alone I would go with Disaster and Cherry Red.
Do we know who composed those songs?
Alcohol You – Ionut Armas, Viky Red, Breyan Isaac
Beautiful Disaster – Breyan Isaac, Alex Cotoi, Julie Frost (one of the composers of Satellite)
Cherry Red – Theea Miculescu, Sebastian Barac, Marcel Botezan, Costel Dominteanu
Colors – Breyan Isaac, Alex Cotoi, Julie Frost
Storm – Minelli, Viky Red
Exactly one non-Romanian, very cool
Indeed, he was one of the minds behind Mohombi’s song
Cherry Red was produced by INNA’s producers. They are better known as Play&Win 🙂
Based on the snippets, this would be my ranking:
1. Beautiful Disaster
2. Cherry Red
3. Storm
4. Colours
5. Alcohol You
“Cherry Red” or “Alcohol You” are my picks 🙂
Same 🙂
Quality songs but I don’t hear a winner.
These are all typical pop songs, already seen million times in eurovision. They all sound similar to me, like Finland last year. Looks like Romania isn’t going back to the finals this year, sorry
Are you joking? What do you want them to send, experimental jazz opera ethnic folk? You know the whole point of eurovision is it’s a pop music contest, from the get to, ya know POPULAR music. It’s sort of meant to reflect current trends, not reinventing the wheel every year.
Yes but there are different kinds od pop music, not all of them have to sound the same. Same situation as in Finish nf last year with Darude