Could Voltaj's "De la capăt" break Romania's finals streak at the Eurovision Song Contest?
Country: Romania
Song Title: "De la capăt" (All Over Again)
Artist: Voltaj
Semi-Final: First, Position 15
Last year's entry: "Miracle" - Paula Selig and Ovi (12th Place)
Romania is one of the few countries to have never missed getting to the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004. While that's impressive, they haven't exactly been on a hot streak lately - their last placement in the top 10 was with Paula Selig & Ovi's "Playing with Fire" in 2010. While they tried((unsuccessfully, in my opinion)) to recapture that magic by sending the duo last year with "Miracle", even that didn't get them back in the top of the charts, finishing just outside in 12th. It seems a new strategy in order - is Voltaj's "De la capăt" the ticket to get them there?
In pulling my thoughts together on this song, I've listened to it about 6 or 7 times, and it fails to really leave anything of an impression every time. Voltaj's song has a vague inspirational feel, and sounds like the bland radio-filler people complain about when they think about adult contemporary radio. There's nothing here that feels "Eurovision" to me other than the use of the Romanian language - the instrumentation's straight-up middle-of-the-road pop and the lyrics feel equally bland. The singer of the group certainly seems capable, but I'm just not excited by this entry compare to some of the others in its semifinal, like Estonia and Belarus.
One thing the song has in its favor is its performance slot. By getting placed later in the evening, it's more likely to be closer to the forefront of voter's minds, but I think the entries on either side of it, Albania and Georgia, are likely to have stronger performances that may keep this song from being noticed. It's nice, but a standard "band" performance may not be enough to cut it in terms of getting to the final. This feels like a bubble song to me - depending on what entries really shine the night of, it could come 8th, or it could come 12th. This could be the one that breaks Romania's streak.