Absent last year due to a disqualification a few weeks before the contest (because the Romanian national broadcaster had racked up years of unpaid debts to the EBU), Romania are back with a bang this year. Love it or loathe it, this song will be one of the ones that gets noticed in the UK media. Can they keep their record of 100% qualification for the final intact (not counting last year!)?

They have certainly brought something unusual to the contest (as Romania have done on a number of occasions) – though even regular followers of Eurovision would have been surprised of this unlikely combination of hip-hop/rap and yodelling sung by two Romanians who only got together as a duet in January for this song. Only in Eurovision could you get this sort of combination!

While this placing may be low, the live performances they’ve put in at London, Amsterdam etc (they can actually sing and peform well live) and the way they engage with both each other and get the crowd going, suggest that they actually could do better than people first expected. Juries may not go for this in a big way, but I think this is more likely to qualify than not actually – I’m not sure it necessarily enhances the views of casual Eurovision TV viewers in terms of what Eurovision is now, but it certainly adds something fun and different to the contest!

Mum’s reaction: “What on earth, good lord”

Official video:

Live at London Eurovision Preview Party:

Romania at the Eurovision Song Contest: 

First entered: 1994

Appearances (excluding this year): 17

Best result: 3rd in 2005 and 2010

Last year’s result: Disqualified before contest