Disqualifying Klein, the Dutch singer, for unclear allegations

The biggest pre-contest scandal surrounded the disqualification of the Dutch representative, Joost Klein. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) disqualified Klein just before the final due to an “incident” involving a female production crew member. Allegations arose that Klein had intimidated this woman, though the exact nature of the incident remains unclear. The Swedish police confirmed questioning a man for threatening a Eurovision employee but did not confirm the individual’s identity. Klein’s absence and the lack of transparency surrounding his disqualification left a sour taste in the mouths of many fans.

Now, a few questions remain, as the allegations have not been proven yet, and all there is is the accusation of one Swedish woman, which is currently under investigation by the brave Swedish Police. So, are accusations enough to exclude a contestant from Eurovision? It’s good to know that…

To make it more controversial, his hit is called Europapa, where Papa doesn’t refer to any father figure—got it?

Croatia had the most appreciated song in the final, yet Baby Lasagna lost

Croatia’s energetic performance of “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” by Baby Lasagna was an instant fan favourite, quickly gaining traction online and sparking discussions about its potential to be the summer’s biggest earworm. However, when the votes were tallied, it was Switzerland’s non-binary that emerged victorious.

Many viewers expressed discontent on social media, arguing that “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” had a stronger melody and broader appeal, potentially reflecting a bias in jury voting.

Israel was required to replace the title and remove lyrics from its representative’s song

Another point of tension arose regarding the Israeli entry. The EBU reportedly requested that Israel revise its song lyrics, deeming certain content politically charged and in violation of contest rules.

Eden Golan’s original song, called October Rain, referring to Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, was changed into Hurricane. Also, controversial lyrics had to be adjusted for the singer to be let in the competition.

This move sparked debate about artistic freedom and the role of politics in Eurovision, a contest which claims to be politics-free.

The controversial non-binary winner breaks the Code, but also the Eurovision Trophy on stage

Adding fuel to the fire, the Swiss winner accidentally broke the iconic Eurovision trophy. While some saw it as a lighthearted mishap, others interpreted it as a symbolic foreshadowing of a troubled victory. Others scientifically referred to the Swiss representative’s piercing glass-shattering eardrum-perforating voice, which affected the trophy, but who knows exactly what happened?

For those who don’t understand Eurovision, these were only the most visible controversial and scandalous moments during this year’s contest.

Unfortunately, Eurovision will have some good songs in the competition, but politics will always prevail. despite the competition being promoted as politcs-free. The winner is not always the best voice or singer but only the one most favoured by the voting gods in Brussels. We’re not in 1974 when Waterloo became an international hit and offered ABBA as the most successful Swedish band of all time to the whole world.

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Apparently, the primary consideration was the financial aspects, but the country was involved in different scandals at the Eurovision. One example: in 2022, Romania’s votes at the Eurovision were stolen, and the country was not allowed to vote during the ceremony.

Thirteen members voted on this matter: five supported participation at Eurovision 2024, four opposed the participation, and four abstained.

Therefore, Romania won’t join the list of participating countries at Eurovision 2024. Based on TVR‘s statement, other projects will get financial priority, like the Olympic Games in Paris.

Last year, the Eurovision participation fee for Romania was around 180,000 euros, but the country’s representative didn’t get to the finals.

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At that time, we said that the song was not the most valuable that Romania could’ve sent to Eurovision. We were polite, as it turned out.

This year, Romania only counted the public votes. No specialized jury interfered, and the result was, to be fair, not the most valuable song in the national competition or the best performance Romania had in the national final.

If failure had a name in music, that name would be “Off and On.” Romania failed, once again, to qualify for the final of Eurovision 2023. This time, a boy dressed in some sort of loathing pink suit with matching shorts and socks took a punt at performing. His “performance” was so lame that his failure would deafeningly echo in Bucharest for months.

Critics and social media users pointed out that the Romanian so-called “artist” tried to hide his mediocrity behind flashy clothes. By wearing a grotesque pink suit and matching shorts and socks, probably inspired or supporting the LGBTQ movement, the guy must have thought he could get away with his mediocre voice and lack of musical talent. His yelling at the audience was certainly not appreciated by the public or jury.

Fortunately for those who will watch the final on Saturday, but also for Romanian fans, the country’s representative won’t have the “opportunity” to embarrass himself at Liverpool Arena. The Gods of Music must have heard his yelling on stage and mercifully shortened his stay in the city that offered the Beatles to the world.

There is something notable here: the Romanian represented his country by winning a selection where only the public’ votes were counted, with no jury interference whatsoever. The question is – how bad are Romanians’ taste in music?

Romanians will probably go all-in for Moldova

On the other hand, Romania’s sister country, MOLDOVA, has a good chance of impressing the public with “Soarele si Luna” performed by Pasha Parfeni in Romanian. Better listen to this music, as Moldovans prove, year after year, they have good taste in music and offer inspirational performances.

While Romania is missing from the final, most probably, Romanians in the country and all over Europe will go all in for Moldova. From this perspective, with all these votes, plus the ones that will come from people genuinely enjoying the song, we bet our bottom dollar that Moldova could rank among the Top 5 this year, if not even higher.

Good luck, Moldova!

Next time, Romania! Next time…

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This year, Romania only counted the public votes. No specialized jury interfered, and the result was, to be fair, not the most valuable song in the national competition or the best performance Romania had in the national final.

All in all, Theodor is going to represent Romania at the 67th edition in Liverpool. 37 countries will compete for the trophy this year, with the semifinals on May 9 and 11 and the final on May 13. Great Britain took the responsibility of organizing the competition as Ukraine, the winner last year, could not securely organize the competition in Kyiv.

We let you judge his chances of getting into the final.

Romanian Television is the organizer of the National Selection and has participated in the European competition since 1993. Romania’s best performances in this competition were: twice third place (Luminiţa Anghel & Sistem – Kyiv, 2005; Paula Seling and Ovi – Oslo, 2010) and fourth place once (Mihai Trăistariu – Athens, 2006).

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According to an official press release, Romania’s participation in the 67th Eurovision Song Contest was unanimously accepted by TVR’s Administrative Council. This follows years of controversy surrounding the nation’s competition results and a tumultuous relationship with the EBU.

Romania has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 22 times, but none of those appearances have resulted in a victory. Their best achievements are their two third-place finishes with “Let Me Try” by Luminita Anghel, Sistem in 2005 and “Playing With Fire” by Paula Seling and Ovi in 2010.

With “Llámame,” WRS returned Romania to the Grand Final in Turin in 2022 for the first time since 2017. His final standing was 18th with 65 points.

It’s worth reminding of the scandal at the end of the Eurovision 2022 competition, when Romania’s votes were stolen. The Romanian Television Society was shocked by the EBU’s decision to cancel Romania’s votes. In this case, it was not only Romania but other countries from the former communist bloc as well.

At the end of the competition, there was a big scandal, and many were dissatisfied, from what was observed in the opinion of the Romanian media. It seems that this humiliation does not prevent the Romanians from participating once more in this contest where music and talent do not matter.

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Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest, but the grand finale couldn’t end without a scandal. Because the invasion of Ukraine and the entire military escalation in the region attracted the whole planet’s attention and generated millions of political or philanthropic reactions, Ukraine was expected to be favoured.

It is not a surprise that Eurovision is more about politics than music. Everybody knows it, but no one is saying anything about the irregularities of Eurovision.

On the evening when Romania was going to broadcast the score, a few minutes before the live broadcast of the presenter of the Romanian station that broadcast Eurovision, Eda Marcus, it was reported that Romania had technical problems.

Here’s what happens when Mika announced that Romania has ”technical difficulties”:

The video above is a recording of Eda Marcus, the presenter who had to broadcast Romania’s points live. Her reaction says it all. She couldn’t believe what was happening and that with a couple of moments before the broadcast.

The Romanian presenter also explained what happened behind the scenes

TVR (Romanian television) points out that the presenter Eda Marcus was not allowed to communicate live the results of the Romanian judging by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The EBU annulled the vote of the Romanian jury.

It should be noted that the Eurovision show is recorded one night before the broadcast to avoid unforeseen situations that could jeopardise the broadcast. However, the judging is broadcast live. The jury, which was appointed by Romanian television to judge the artistic moments, met on Friday evening and voted. The procedure is standard. The score is uploaded to a platform before the organizers have the score. In Romania’s situation, the jury offered Moldova maximum points meaning that the 12 points were allocated to Moldova, not to Ukraine, as later announced by European Broadcasting Union.

The scores are uploaded to an online platform, they are processed on the evening of the show and a few minutes before I go live, the EBU practically takes out of that platform where these notes were introduced by my colleagues, a sheet that I have to show in the presence of a notary. This sheet is printed and brought to me in 5 minutes. (…) Imagine the shock of my colleague, Diana Damian, who took care of this procedure when she handed me with that sheet, knowing what was the ranking she had given the night before when she looked at the sheet and saw 12 points for Ukraine.

Eda Marcu, presenter on Romanian television

EBU has been notified in advance of this mistake. According to the Romanian television presenter, EBU communicated something evasive.

We were told to do as written, that they are EBU and that they will clarify the situation. That’s how I ended up with the 12-point sheet for Ukraine and couldn’t broadcast live anymore.

Eda Marcu, presenter on Romanian television

What were the real scores offered by Romania at EUROVISION

The total scores offered by Romania were the following: Moldova – 12 points, Grece – 10 points, Poland – 8 points, Netherlands – 7 points, Azerbaijan – 6 points, Australia – 5 points, Italy – 4 points, Spain – 3 points, Finland – 2 points, Lithuania – 1 point.

Even though it was reported that Romania had technical problems, after the end of the contest, it was announced that the jury from Romania and other countries was disqualified. According to EBU, the juries of six nations participating in the second EUROVISION 2022 semi-final have been disqualified due to irregularities. Instead, a replacement aggregate result was introduced for each country concerned, both for the second semi-final and for the grand final (calculated based on the results of other countries with a similar voting history). The six disqualified national juries were Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino.

Now, some believe that this whole issue with Ukraine has grown and that it has gone too far. Others say that if the Eurovision game was already set to be won by the Ukrainians, why did they hide it. One thing is clear. Eurovision has always been a political game, with a lot of money and interest in the middle behind a curtain of empathy, reminiscent of this year. In order not to be the victim of such a game, Romania should permanently withdraw from this competition, and many other countries should do the same.

Photo Source: Eurovision World

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The song is a mixture between Ukrainian folklore and rap beats, and it is seen as a political manifesto of the Ukrainian resistance against the Russian invaders.

The United Kingdom and Spain ranked two and three in the final.

The Republic of Moldova ranked seven with another political manifesto, The Train. The performance in the final is exceptional, and the credit goes to Zdob si Zdub and Advahov Brothers. The song is about the two sister countries, Romania and the Republic of Moldova, and the two peoples’ historical bonds.

Romania disappointingly ranked 18 after five years since no Romanian artist reached the final act. The inclusive performance of WRS received only 65 points.

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The song was selected out of five live performances by Roxen in the Eurovision Romania final on Sunday evening, March 1.

Viky Red was responsible for the music and the production of the song “Alcohol You”, and the text was written by Ionuţ Armas and Breyan Isaac. Breyan Isaac is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, producer and pianist.

Listen below to Romania’s song for the Eurovision 2020 contest:

Source photo: facebook.com

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