It’s official! Switzerland and Romania have made a cultural exchange for Eurovision 2017. After Romanian band Timebelle won Die Entscheidungsshow one month ago, Romania is going to send an Alpine banger to Kyiv, as Ilinca feat. Alex Florea won Selectia Nationala 2017 with “Yodel It!”. What were the odds?!
This year the jury sifted through 72 entries and picked ten finalists for Sunday’s show. During the Selectia Nationala final, the winner was determined 100% by the televote. It was the first time the public had their say in the selection, so the results were a big unknown, despite the fact that “Yodel It!” was a huge favourite in the Eurovision fandom.
In the semi-final, Ilinca feat. Alex Florea wowed the jury and earned a maximum score of 60 — that is all the scores of 12 from the five jurors.
Tonight, the public also decided that “Yodel It!” should represent Romania. With 10,377 votes, the duo totally slayed the pack. In second place was M I H A I with 5,201 votes. Third place went to Instinct, who received 3,063 votes.
Selectia Nationala 2017 final: Televoting results
Ilinca feat. Alex Florea: “Yodel It!” – National final performance
Ilinca and Alex Florea have been fan favourites ever since their live audition. The song is even believed to be responsible for Romania sitting sixth in the odds to win Eurovision this year.
The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — gave “Yodel It!” an overall score of 7.36, the highest of Selectia Nationala 2017. Jason gave it a score of 9 and said: “I fell in love with this entry. The mixture of rap and yodeling actually works really well. ‘Yodel It’ would stand out in Kyiv, that’s for sure! Ilinca and Alex Florea have wonderful chemistry on stage and it really elevates this entry.”
Ilinca feat. Alex Florea also won the wiwibloggs Selectia Nationala 2017 poll by an Alpine landslide. “Yodel It!” managed to grab more votes than all the other acts combined, amassing over 50% of the ballot. With such a preamble, it should come as no surprise that the duo won Romania’s national selection by such a margin.
WHO ARE ILINCA AND ALEX?
Eighteen-year old Ilinca Bacila broke onto the Romanian music scene when her blind audition on The Voice of Romania 2014 went viral. Three judges turned their seats and Ilinca went on to reach the semi-finals.
Alex Florea, who is 26 years old, also reached the semi-final of The Voice of Romania one year later. Unlike on “Yodel It!”, where he raps, on The Voice he was the resident rocker. In 2014, Alex also entered X Factor Romania — only to lose out to rising pop star Nicoleta Nuca.
Ilinca first met with Alex at the end of last year, when Mihai Alexandru came up to them with the song “Yodel It!”. The songwriter made the Eurovision stage once before, in 2003, with the song “Don’t Break My Heart” performed by his then wife Nicola. He’s also responsible for Timebelle’s first attempt to represent Switzerland, “Singing About Love”. This will mark the second time when Mihai Alexandru has won the Romanian selection.
At the press conference after the national final, Mihai Alexandru specified that he initially wrote the song for Timebelle in Switzerland. Suddenly, the yodeling starts to make sense, right? However, because of the band’s contractual commitments, the collaboration fell through and that’s when the songwriter turned his attention to Ilinca and Alex. And the rest is history in the making!
Interval acts: Timebelle, Manel Navarro and SunStroke Project
The representatives of Switzerland, Spain, and Moldova got to promote their songs. Romanian band Timebelle, representing Switzerland, performed “Apollo”, while Manel Navarro sang “Do It For My Lover” and SunStroke Project wowed the crowd with “Hey Mamma”. While the viewers voted for their favourite acts, ABBA tribute band Arrival from Sweden performed several hits of the Eurovision 1974 winners.
What do you think about the winner of Selectia Nationala 2017? Will “Yodel It!” make a good impression in Kyiv? What’s your prediction? Sound off below!
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@Mark
BTW, so Portugal with a timeless classy song is old-fashioned and using an ancient and rudimentary form of folk signing is hip and “2017” vibes?… Interesting…
As I have been attacked in other posts I want to express my solidarity with all those that HATE this song! This one of the worst entries EVER!!! Paula Seling & Ovi please please bring us another “Playing with Fire” in 2018!
Overrated with the bookmakers but this interesting and different !
Mario’s Eurovision 2017
https://eurovision2017blog.wordpress.com/
Italy and Portugal song are a joke ? Why Italy and Portugal choose this ulgy songs? Why Europe are crazy and don’t the 2017 vibe of Romania Yodel it and why we don’t give a chance to beauty country Romania ? Like Austria with Conchita Wurst you will see that Romania will be in top 3 and why not the winner of 2017 🙂
Please vote Romania Yodel it and 2017 will be a magnificent year 🙂
I think Europe is jealous on Romania song because Yodel It is the best song from Eurovision and Romania have good odds and chances to win this year Eurovision 🙂 I hope Romania will be the winner of 2017 because it’s the only happy , catchy , fun song and easy to sing 🙂 Europe please be more nice with Romania and with Yodel It because you will see if Romania wins will be a great moment and i want to go in Bucharest 2018 to feel romanian life 🙂 My opinion about songs are : Italy ugly song Australia… Read more »
This is a big joke. OMG
Another tragedy, Eurovision Boring Contest should be the name this year.
@jj: Perhaps you’re suggesting that maybe Ilinca and Alex should switch places with Timebelle, no?
That being said, if “Yodel It!” could qualify, maybe there’s a better chance for Jon Henrik to qualify. Yodeling vs. Jojk; that would make for one interesting battle-royale, yes? 😛
@Adam, Daniel_2017: You ain’t kiddin’! Eurovision fans CAN be a tough crowd. And fickle. That being said, fans of the other contenders had their chance to take down Ilinca and Alex, and obviously they blew it, because this duo got nearly TWICE as many votes as MIHAI. I will reserve judgment until I see the music video; but as of right now, I may have to consider grading them in terms of COMEDY, once I get started next month on grading the audios and videos of all 43 contenders… …Right now, it’s looking like Joci from Hungary may be my… Read more »
This has to be one of the single worst songs in Eurovision history. It deserves to get nil points, but it’ll probably end up in the top 10.
@Tazmanian DeMoon: Yeah right, “She shouldn’t dress like that” means “She should wear a burkha”… Seriously?!
@puppy love: I have your back on that one. 😉
@Tazmanian DeMoon: … That girl is 18 years old?! She really shouldn’t dress that way…
Tazmanian DeMoon
You act like a bully. You are not by far a funny troll like Charles, you are just a bully.
@Dan
Can’t you hear it? Most clearly it can be heard before the last chorus.
Seems like it’s either generic, typical stuff you’d expect from ESC or just plain novelty crap we send most years (this one included). Far too rarely do we manage to muster up a remotely interesting entry. P?cat…
It’s catchy , happy , and Romania rock’s again Eurovision 2017 stage 🙂 Good luck Romania and bring Eurovision in Bucharest in 2018 🙂 I will vote for Yodel It and all 12 points will be for you Romania !
The winner 2017 is Romania with Yodel it :)) Top 3 sure !
the best entry for 2017 Eurovision , Bucharest 2018
In my opinion Romania is very good in this year. A lot of songs were interesting but Yodel it and Petale were the best. I`m so happy people in Romania chose optimistic and funny song. In this year we have so many boring ballads.
Don’t know what to say… its over the top bad I think!
The yodel part from her is fun, two times when I hear it….but then it start to enoying me. 3 minutes of yodeling is just to much for my sack.
This is so kitsch i can’t even…
Romania deserves better i think.
Still #6 in the betting odds.
So, they were the reason why Romania is so high in the odds.
Bucharest 2018, Paris 2018, Rome 2018, Lisbon 2018 are all possibilities. I say we are headed to SOUTH!
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@ Tazmanian DeMoon
Their are my own personal opinions, how is that trolling???
And by the way my name is Rich it is shorten name for Richard, it is not a nickname. Anybody can voice an opinion, I may not agree with you, it doesn’t mean we should be disrespectful to each other. Why so hostile? There is no need for it. Just accept each other opinion’s and move on..
Enjoy the rest of the national final season, but first of all be respectful of each other.
Rich
Jury loves screaming women, and this is the ultimate.
I’m sooo happy that Yodel it won!!! Bucharest 2018! Romania will rise again 😀 Yodeliooooooo
AurelianTamisan@ Where is the rock in the song?
The song might be popular with the televote but the jury will drag it down. I agree, the song is radio trash., but arent this kind of songs popular these days?
Lol at me. I slept while watching the ABBA performances during the 1 hr break. While TVR, you delayed it …..eurofans definitely yodelled it.
Also I felt Ramona nerra was good.
Romania are good at giving us Eurovision classics.
This will be fondly remembered like Cezar’s It’s My Life from 2013.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
INSTANT final, and probably top 10. I LOVE THIS!!!
The only thing is that the staging isn’t that interesting, even if they have great chemistry.
I say this is winning material. So memorable, so catchy, so different.
Welcome Back Romania!
What a weekend, all 3 (Estonia, Romania, Portugal) made great choices….
I am so happy this is going to Kyiv! This feels very much top 10. I think they have good chemistry together. I only didn’t like Ilinca’s dress tonight, it felt TOO yodely lol, I liked that red dress from before.
i have a love-hate relationship with this song.
Yah never thought a country would take over Austria as my faviourit this year but I’ve got my new number 1
Top 5
1. Romania
2. Austria
3. UK
4. Finland
5. Belarus
A cheap version of Script’s Hall of Fame featuring unnecessary yodeling that makes it even parodic,
She’s a talented yodeler, but she, or someone with equivalent skills, should be representing Switzerland. This does not really represent Romanian culture.
my head hurts, its just bad and cheezy
Not Malta-bad, but not good.
I got a stomach ache listening to this 🙁
i have nothing else to say
What about nope? Nope, nope, nope
Heidi is back! I really dislike the entry and those Heidi yells. I think the best of the night was Manel Navarro! He gave a touch of freshness and simplicity to the venue.
This is why ESC had)s) a bad reputation: Romania and Eastern countries sending kitsch that devalue the contest.
It’s not the worst entry of the year but certainly not one of the best either. There are better and worse entries than this. It is fun and all but the novelty act wears thin pretty fast. The kind of song that ends up like 5th in the tele vote but way lower in the jury voting leading to a lower top 10 or mid-table spot
* mass protests