Romania brings pop-rock in Lisbon with band The Humans
Romania is one of the few countries that never failed to qualify from the semi finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. With every participation they managed to make it to the grand final, with a third place in 2005 and 2010 as best results so far. This year the pop-rock band The Humans won the Romanian preselection and they will represent their country in Lisbon in May with the song ‘Goodbye’. According to the bookmakers, Romania is going to miss out on the final for the very first time.
It seems like the EBU does not see much potential in the Romanian entry this year, as they gave it the deadly second spot to perform in the weaker second semi final. So what exactly is the problem with ‘Goodbye’? To start off positively, it is not necessarily a bad song and if you look past their bland band name, The Humans actually seem like a talented bunch, especially lead singer Cristina. The biggest problem however is that their song does not seem to be suitable for Eurovision at all. Now I am not saying that typical Eurovision tracks are the way to go, but a song that only really gets going past the 1:30 minute mark does not leave itself enough time to impress on stage. When the chorus finally comes around, it feels slightly underwhelming as it certainly is not the big push the track needs. The empowering message in the lyrics is beautiful, but never flourishes because everything else fails to leave a lasting impression. I think the Romanian diaspora around Europe might not save them this time, unless the juries weigh in to appreciate the flawless vocals.
Review of Semi Final Performance:
Romania was one of the countries that never missed qualification for the final before, but as the first semi final made clear, no country is safe in Eurovision this year! Band The Humans performed the song ‘Goodbye’, which takes ages to properly get going. We should all know by now that this is far from ideal in Eurovision. By the time the chorus came around for the first time, half of Europe probably already moved on. The chorus itself isn’t all that memorable on first listen either. Lead singer Cristina gave a vocally powerful performance, but the stage act with the mannequins was just distracting. This all naturally resulted in Romania failing to make it to the grand final for the first time. It later turned out juries wanted Romania to go through with an 8th spot, but the 13th place with televoters, caused them to finish 11th overall.
Read our other Eurovision 2018 reviews: ALBANIA – ARMENIA – AUSTRALIA –AUSTRIA – AZERBAIJAN – BELARUS –BELGIUM – BULGARIA – CROATIA – CYPRUS –CZECH REPUBLIC – DENMARK – ESTONIA – FINLAND – FRANCE – FYR MACEDONIA – GEORGIA – GERMANY – GREECE – HUNGARY – ICELAND –IRELAND – ISRAEL –ITALY – LATVIA – LITHUANIA –MALTA – MOLDOVA – MONTENEGRO – THE NETHERLANDS – NORWAY – POLAND – PORTUGAL – RUSSIA – SAN MARINO – SERBIA – SLOVENIA – SPAIN – SWEDEN – SWITZERLAND – UKRAINE – UNITED KINGDOM