Romania 2023: Theodor Andrei with ‘D.G.T (Off and On)’

In the least anticipated national final of the season, Theodor Andrei was able to grab the ticket for Liverpool:

I checked out a couple of the Romanian entries when they were realesed and this was one of them. Like most of these quick scans I don't often go past the minute and that was the case for this. I quite like it and it’s in the wheelhouse of stuff I'm prone to but it's admittedly a long three minutes I don't find the need to sit through.

I understand what he's going for and that narratively the bag of clichés this is has a purpose but in practice it does look like a college performance - the ‘make love not war’ ending motive the cherry on an amateur cake.

A lot of styling decisions particularly around Andrei need to be changed and the staging improved, though if it finds itself in the final it's not getting close to the left hand side of jury scores regardless and probably has to settle for Romania's base diaspora anyway in a 26 song field. Thankfully for Romania, the shockingly low domestic interest hasn't translated entirely to a lack of loyalty votes.

The semi final is where these improvements could be important. Despite being one of the main beneficiaries of the 100% televote switch it's not the best selection of countries for Romania with Italy and Moldova missing. Casual support is needed away from the diaspora in Spain and the smaller numbers across the UK, Greece and Belgium. I'm actually leaning towards an NQ at this stage but it's very much borderline either way.

Personal Rating: 6/10

Competitve Rating: 4/10

Early Prediction: Semi Two 9th-13th, 19th-23rd if in the final.