"I haven't mounted on a stage for 20 years, but in my heart I have always sung, said Valeriu"

The Spin

Bogdan Tascau aka Mister M - "The Spanish"
Bogdan attended the keyboard section of People's Art School in Bucharest and he is a graduated actor. At present, he attends the classes of the Faculty of Communication and Public Relations (SNSPA) as a second year student, but he is obviously mainly focused on music. What else could be said about Bogdan? Without his girlfriend Elena's insistence, Liubi, Liubi, I Love You would have never been finished. Elena was the one who believed in this song just from the beginning and who encouraged Bogdan, Andrei, Kamara and Vlad to give it a form that could win the Romanian public and would open their way to Helsinki.

Vlad Cretu - "The Englishman"
Born on March 14th, 1982, in Bucharest, Vlad attended the courses of People's Art School, graduated the Music Highschool George Enescu and afterwards the Academy of Music, while dedicating himself to guitar. He was one of the founders of the band Supermarket, and he released two albums and launched four singles with them. With the song Te Iubesc (I Love You), Vlad and Supermarket were awarded two important prizes - the Trophy of the National Love Song, in 1999, and the first place in Mamaia Festival, in "Rock" section, in the year 2000.

Kamara Ghedi - "The Frenchman"
Kamara was born in Romania, from a Romanian mother, descending from Filotti family, and his father originating in French Guinea. After his father's death, the family moved to his country of origin, where Kamara lived until being 22. In 1997, he returned to Romania to study journalism in Cluj. In that period, he divided his time between school and football training, until he got a scholarship and came to Bucharest His passion for football brought him not necessarily a sporting career, but the chance to make friends, like Andrei STEFANESCU. Kamara and Andrei founded a band, ALB NEGRU, and they released their first EP in 2004 - "En garde". In fact, the man who discovered the two boys was "Mister M" (Bogdan TASCAU), the Spanish guy from the group.

Andrei Stefanescu - "The Romanian"
Andrei is the other half of the band AlbNegru and the Romanian guy from the band that represents our country at Eurovision 2007. A football fan, as well as his stage "mate", Kamara, Andrei hates violence against animals and wickedness, in general. Andrei met Kamara in 2002, when the latter joined the national football team of artists.

Ciro De Luca - "The Italian"
Ciro DE LUCA was born in Napoli, in 1970, from an Italian father and a Romanian mother. His relation to Romania has been built all along his childhood, being educated both by his parents and by his grandparents (his mother's parents). As a teenager, enchanted by the artistic life, he collaborated with a television station in Napoli for an entertainment program called "If everything goes well, we are ruined".

Valeriu Raileanu - "The Russian"
Valeriu was born in Ukraine, at Lucovi, on July 21st, 1973. He spent his childhood and adolescence in Cernauti, where he graduated middle school, music school and the Technical College. His departure for studies prevented him from going on with his artistic interests, a thing that he regretted a lot. "I haven't mounted on a stage for 20 years, but in my heart I have always sung", said Valeriu, recommended by his band colleagues as a great oratorical talent. Valeriu is not only an inborn artist and leader, but also a skilful entrepreneur. While for several years he collaborated with various TV stations as a translator, in 2004, he decided to establish his own translation company.

The Singer
 
If only this motley collection of grotesques had heard of the Greek super-group Locomondo, then they would have cruised into Helsinki without the embarrassment of swopping one third rate name for another. The replacement was chosen after polling the eurogeeks for suggestion, and I offered my help with "multi-national lost causes", and "give it up as badjobo", were passed over for the ever so different "Todomondo". At least along with D'Nash they'll be able to sheepishly regale each other with boring stories about their lack of imagination.

The Past
  
To me Romania are that the unruly boy at the back of the class in high school. The one that is clever, but refuses to listen and instead disrupts the class, throwing bits of paper and being immaturely suggestive to the young female French teacher. As a result he gets report cards which say "young Roman is clearly a bright child and could have potential, but will not succeed until he starts to pay attention in class". "Until he sorts this, he will occasionally produce mildly interesting songs that scrape a top ten place, but will more likely stagnate with the likes of Sanda Ladosi".

 
The Song
 
Erm, how to describe this? Well, it's split into six languages, which is proven to guarantee votes of course, but never tends to trouble the top five. The "singers" stand in a line, and one by one take front stage and show us how bad each one is at singing. The French one, a Red Dwarf cat-alike, is particularly gruesome. I can't work out if employing such blatant stereotypes as a beret and a striped shirt, or a top hat and pipe, will go down particularly well with the French and the Brits etc. I hope it doesn't.

Overall

Not even an ill-judged name change from the massive potential of "Locomondo" to "Todomondo" can dispel the overwhelming sense of desperation about Romania '07. Usually multi-cultural efforts fails on all fronts, but this will probably surpass even that. A type of Strasbourg EU conference where everyone wears headphones and even then no-one understands a word that is said. Bringing to mind the unholy mess of LT United last year, six blokes have somehow managed to concoct an idea to grab a free holiday whilst having a bit of banter down the pub, and then sold it to an entire weary nation.

In a Nutshell
" Eryone around the world should be offended"

the philosopher says

"Bocardo" Name given by medieval logicians to a categorical syllogism whose standard form has the mood and figure designated as OAO-3. For example: "Some Romanian acts do not have big drums, but since all Romanian acts tend to be repetitive dirges, it follows that some repetitive dirges do not contain big drums."
This is one of the fifteen forms of valid syllogism.

Liubi, Liubi, I love you

Everywhere around the world 'I love you' it means the same
Everyday and everynight only you cand touch my flame
So take my heart, take my soul, everything of me
Everywhere you go my baby, even Italy.

Non devi essere speciale, 'io ti amo' e sempre uguale
Lo puoi dire come voi, sei da solo con i tuoi
E qui non esistono frontiere, l'amor non ha bariere
In citta o in campagna, lo stesso in Spagna.

Por todo el mundo te quiero es lo mismo,
Cada dia y cada noche solo tu me das amor (ariba),
Aqui es mi sol te lo doy todo lo que soy
Si te vas te buscare en Russia se.

Ãäå-òî òàì, êòî-òî òàì òåáÿ ëþáèò, íå çàáóäü,
Ñêàæè äà, ëþáèìàÿ, ëþáèìàÿ, ëþáè ëþáè òû ìåíÿ.
Ãäå-áû òû íå íàõîäèëàñü, ãäå á íå ïîáûâàëà,
Áóäó æäàòü, ëþáèìàÿ, ñåãîäíÿ è âñåãäà.

(Gde-to tam, kto-to tam tebya lyubit, ne zabud'
Skazhi 'da' lyubimaya, lyubi-lyubi ti menya.
Gde by ty ne nahodilas', gde b ne pobyvala
Budu zhdat', lyubimaya, segodnya i vsegda!)

Madmoiselle, partout au monde, 'je t'aime' c'est la memme chose
Chaque jour, chaque nuit, toi tu reste ma sole rose
Par mon coeur, par mon ame, ma vie, ma cherie
Appelle moi, enque tu sois memme en Roumanie.

Undeva cineva te iubeste, nu uita
Spune da, iubita mea, stii cum e cu dragostea
Oriunde ai fi, oricat ai sta, te voi astepta
Inima imi spune ea, aici e casa ta.

(x2):
Everywhere around the world, 'io ti amo' e sempre iguale
Cada dia y cada noche, liubi, liubi ti minia
Par mon coeur, par mon ame, ma vie, ma cherie
Inima imi spune ea, aici e casa ta.
Prediction Semi Final -
Final 20th