Romania's Eurovision story is one of persistence
finally gaining reward. Afterer three entries failed to make any
major impression, and a further two missing out in pre-qualifying
competition, Romania scored its first Top 10 position in Tallinn in
2002. Romania has since built on those foundations and is the only
country to finish in the Top 5 in the last two contests.
Romanian broadcaster TVR decided to stick with
the formula that has brought it good results and had a three show
Eurovision selection; featuring two semi-finals and a final staged
in Bucharest on February 10th. The winner was chosen by a mixture
of televoting and a jury and the clear winner was the multilingual
novelty song "Ljubi, Ljubi, I Love You" sung by
Locomondo. However soon after their victory, the band were forced
to change their name to Todomondo, to avoid confusion with a Greek
group.
The six man group Todomondo came together not
long before the Romanian Eurovision selection, and were also
responsible for writing their entry. They are (in order of
performance) ; Vlad Cretu (singing in English), Circo De Luca
(Italian), Bogdan Tascau (Spanish), Valeriu Raileanu (Russian),
Kamara Ghedi (French) and Andrei Stefianescu (Romanian). All six
are experienced musicians and performers in their own right.
25 year old Vlad Cretu 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
released two albums and launched four singles with them. With the
song "Te Lubesc (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. Presently, he is collaborating with the
band Hara. He collaborated previously with a countless range of
bands, specialising in song arranging.
Ciro De Luca was born in Naples in 1970. His relationship to
Romania has been built from his childhood, being educated both by
his parents and by his grandparents (his Romanian mother's
parents). At 18 years old, he entered the Carabineers
Academy and after graduating, he served as an officer for 11
years. All this time, he didn't give up his passion for music and
performance, collaborating with many artists from the musical and
theatre world. Fond of poetry, he wrote verses and lyrics for many
artists. In 1999, he decided to dedicate to his own artistic
career, giving up his job as a carabineer. With the help of Jean
Cheptea, composer, he participated to the Light Music Festival
from Amara. In 2004, he signed his first recording contract and
released his first album and he appeared on countless tours. In
2005, he released his second album including the song
"Danceamore", promoted with a video clip. In 2006 he
released in third album and worked to former Eurovision entrant
Nino De Angelo.
Bogdan Tascau is the real name of "Mister M" the
composer and one of the lyricists on this year's Romanian
entry. 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. Both as a singer and as a manager or
composer as well, In 1995, together with one of his best
friends he initiated one of the first dance bands in Romania -
MB&C. In 1996, MB&C released the first album of dance
music in Romania and a year later they participated in one of the
most popular musical events of that period, Radio Contact Galas.
The band released 3 albums between 1995 and 2000 and after that,
Bogdan chose solo career, under the name of "Dl
Problem?" ("Mr. Problem"). A very successful period
followed again for Bogdan, who released three albumbs between 2001
and 2004. As a composer he worked with important Romanian artists
like Andra or Nico, and he is the composer and manager of the band
Albnegru. It was his idea to get Todomundo together for the
Romanian selection.
Valeriu Raileanu was born in Ukraine in 1973. Being fond
of music, dance and sports since childhood, Valeriu participated
in many competitions, while also trying his skills in poetry. His
departure for studies, at Technical College, prevented him from
going on with his artistic interests, something that he regrets 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 singing talent.
Kamara Ghedi was born in Romania but his father came from in
French Guinea. After his father's death, the family moved to his
country of origin, where Kamara lived until he was 22. In 1997, he
returned to Romania to study journalism in Cluj. There he met,
Andrei Stefianescu, as they both shared a passion for
football. Kamara and Andrei formed the band Albnegru
and they released their first EP in 2004. The man who discovered
the two boys was "Mister M", alother Todomondo member.
Albnegru's popularity grew through live appearances and a second
release "Passions" followed in 2005. The summer of 2005
brought them a participation in Mamaia Festival and the Prize for
Artistic Excellence awarded by the Foundation "Ion
Voicu", for the song "Muza Mea" (My Muse). In the
autumn of 2006, Kamara and Andrei released their third album,
"Hello.
The successof Todomondo in the Romanian selection came as no
surprise, and the group have visted many countries promoting their
entry. While the song hasn't set most interpoll alright, it is
doing reasonably well with the bookmakers.
ROMANIA @ EUROVISION