Selecţia Naţională Eurovision 2013

    

    On March 9, Romania chose its representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. After a tremendous journey of 32 song (12 reaching the final), the Romanian tele-voters  picked Cezar "The Voice" Ouatu to represent their country at the European-wide music contest in May. The winner song is entitled "It's My Life" and though it reminds of a Bon Jovi or a Dr. Alban, it has nothing to do with the classics. Following the unexpected outcome, the countertenor met with both acclaim and criticism. Not only Romanians, but also foreign Euro-fans dismissed the song and called it "horrible", or "disgusting". On the other hand, it has the support of big names such as Andrea Bocelli or Angela Gheorghiu. 

    He won with a total of 9,774  SMS+Phone votes, almost 1,000 more than the runner up. At the juries, it gathered 47 points, thus being at number three in their ranking. The betting odds and the fan polls, even though, indicated that Luminita Anghel, Al Mike ft. Renee Santana, or Electric Fence shall win the competition.

    After the results were made public for the Europeans, Romania's position in the betting odds chart descended from its initial peak at #10 towards a disappointing #18 #20 #23 #33 (and still going down!). This means historical lows for the country when it comes to betting odds, after a top-three placing last year (when Romania only came up the twelfth) and top ten placings in 2006, 2009 and 2010.

    For the moment, the early favorites of the contest are Denmark and Norway (with 3.00 to 5.00 odds), being represented by Emmelie De Forest and Margaret Berger respectively. The German representatives Cascada are also among the favorites to win

    Also Eurovision-related, Agnetha (in the video above, former member of Swedish group ABBA) is releasing a new album this May ('A'). The lead single off the new record, her first in almost a decade, is "When You Really Loved Someone" a pure europop ballad with electro influences allover. It has all the chances to become an easy listening radio hit, what do you think?