First things first: I’m a huuuge fan of Paula Seling & Ovi’s entry from 2010, Playing With Fire.

Apart from the special situations around Eurovision 1993 and 1996, Romania has never failed to reach the final, and it’s only four years since the aforementioned duo scored the country’s latest top three result – finishing just eight points behind the second-placed maNga. Romania has never been closer to victory than this! In recent years the country has failed to achieve a top ten placing, but Paula Seling & Ovi are back in the game. Will the recipe work out?

The national preselection, Selecția Națională 2014, consisted of just one final with 12 entries. In the combination of jury and televote, the remarkable situation occurred where the televotes awarded to One More Time exceeded the ones of the later actual winner Miracle by more than 250%! On the scoreboard, however, this translated to a simple 12 and 10 points respectively. The jury went on to give the televoters’ favourite only 4 points – and rewarded the Oslo heroes with their 12.

Paula Seling & Ovi are well known to the Eurovision audience. Besides Valentina Monetta, they are the only ones this year who have been on a Eurovision stage before. Paula, a popular celebrity in Romania, and Ovi (actually Ovidiu Cernăuțeanu), a former MGP entrant, are embarking on the adventure of returning to the Eurovision stage. Are they playing with fire by doing so?

Miracle is – unfortunately – far away from the class of their 2010 entry. The verses build up nicely, but then the chorus lacks a hook. Two uninspired but no less reserved exclamations of “It’s a miracle!” are instead followed by gaps in the length of three beats each. Clearly not what you’d expect after such a build-up! The instrumentals that fill the gaps aren’t exactly outstanding, either. Then the chorus takes up again with something more memorable. All in all, however, there’s no comparison to Playing With Fire. But – and there is a big BUT. No matter how mediocre the songwriting in this might be, it’s still performed by Paula Seling & Ovi, who still have “likeable” witten all over them. For all the averageness of this song, there is still something very warm and lovely inside of it. And this is all that should matter!

My verdict is rather easy: Romania will qualify, and a top 10 result is not out of the question. However I’m afraid the song itself is not strong enough to make a miracle happen in Copenhagen. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see Paula Seling & Ovi back!

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