The result of the Maltese national final deprived us of having one male vocal dance ethnobop entry at Eurovision, but the Romanian national final duly rewarded us with one instead, sung by Wrs (real name Andrei-Ionuț Ursu) It’s a track with both an Eastern European feel as well as a little Spanish flavour too. Romania haven’t qualified since 2017 so will Wrs change their Eurovision fortunes?

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Wrs was a dancer before becoming a singer and songwriter and indeed performed ballet on a couple of Romanian talent shows some years ago. He also has spent time in London, and touchingly at the London Eurovision Party, told us how four years earlier he’d been working in a bar in Soho, and now here he was performing in London as the Romanian entry for Eurovision. In the national final, his song “Llámame” won the jury vote, and came a close second for the public vote, and overall was a comfortable winner.

Readers of this blog will probably already know that I, like many Eurovision fans of my age and persuasion, do enjoy an up tempo ethnobop. I’m aware that this is far from the most ground breaking of songs, nor is Wrs necessarily the most powerful vocalist, but it’s an enjoyable up tempo bop, and I particularly love the ethnic/folk instrumental at the end of choruses – it’s what sets it above (in terms of what I enjoy) something like Spain.

The other thing to note is the obvious enthusiasm of Wrs himself, and he, unsurprisingly given his background, is an impressive dancer. I don’t really know if that will help with the jury vote, but he may get a decent public vote and the support of the Romania diaspora. One note of caution – he is sandwiched between a popular song and a big overall favourite in the semi-final running order.

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Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest