One good turn deserves another - will Paula Seling and Ovi bring Romania a Eurovision miracle?
Country: Romania
Song Title: "Miracle"
Artist: Paula Seling & Ovi
Semi-Final: Second, Position 15
Last year's entry: "It's My Life" - Cezar (13th Place)
It's easy to see why Romania chose to send Paula Seling and Ovi to Eurovision for the second time; their last entry, "Playing With Fire", went all the way to third place in 2010. The chemistry between singers and the fiery stage performance((If your song has "fire" in the title and no pyrotechnics are used in the stage performance, you are disqualified from Eurovision. Those are the rules.)) easily took Romania to the top. Can they recreate the magic in a second performance?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jshx7YmctqI
Romania tends to send what I call "Peak Eurovision" entries, the type of thing you can send to your friends to quickly explain to them why they should watch this. Last year's entry, Cezar's "It's My Life", was a great example((another great example is Moldovan Sax Man)). I like "Playing With Fire" more than "Miracle" - there's something about the chorus that feels oddly aggressive and overly manic that just rubs me the wrong way. That said, I see it doing really well in its semifinal and the competition as a whole - there's a musicianship that will score well with the juries, and even though I find it manic, it seems to be a favorite with the public as well.
It also landed a perfect spot in the running order. The producers of this year's contest smartly saw this was a powerful closer to the second semi-final, and that last position of the night (following a really stacked deck of Greece and Slovenia) is going to stick it in the heads of even more listeners. Paula and Ovi should have no issue getting to the Grand Final, and although I think they'll see some stiff competition there, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Romania saw another top 10 finish overall.