Gosh. Romania. I wasn’t expecting that. This is high-concept performance, sweetie. Yes, but is it art, darling?
Cristina is clad in a purple floor-length gown, split to both thighs, with Joan Collins 1980s shoulders, and is accompanied by firstly two of the other band members in white overalls with white Pierrot-style masks on the backs of their heads. Think Schmetterlinge from Austria 1977. They do some arty moves, during one it looks a bit like the handsomer of the two is going to strangle her. They’re accompanied on stage by a myriad of mannequins, all in the same masks. I mean a LOT of them – maybe 30 or so?
Once it gets to the rock bit, it becomes more of a straight band performance, the drummer, guitarist and cellist dotted amongst the dummies. There’s a little more conceptual strike-a-posing and then it all kind of suddenly stops. It’s a minute and 20 seconds to get to the rock bit kicking in, and for me this is one of the problems with this as a Eurovision song – it just seems to run out of time before a more natural ending can be reached.
I don’t think many people fancied Romania’s chances before we got here. What they’ve done is make an unmemorable song stand out with this staging. I’ve been struggling to whittle this semi up to 10 qualifiers, so perhaps this might just bag a spot?
Monty x