The Humans have a lot to live up to on stage this year, as Romania hopes to continue its 100% qualification record. Their rehearsals on stage have revealed that the band takes new technology to a whole new level not used before at Eurovision.

Romania is competing in the second semi-final in position number 2. The country is represented by The Humans and the song Goodbye, which is written by Alexandru Matei, Alin Neagoe and Cristina Caramarcu.

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Second rehearsal

Opinions expressed during our second rehearsal coverage are personal from the mentioned writers.

Josef Staif , Czech Republic (From the arena) – Romania is another country that so far qualified in every year they took part. And The Humans bring another rock song to Lisbon. The staging is sometimes a little bit cringe but also clever. As a musician I appreciate they brought piano and cello on stage. The mannequins are then quite creepy. I don’t know how to rate the possible qualification but I would find other songs that deserve it more.

Jens Erik, Denmark (From the presse centre) – I’m not quite sure I get the idea with the white masks in the beginning of the performance. To me it looks a bit confusing. I also miss some close ups of the many black mannequins standing on stage. I like the song though, and the lead singer has a great and powerful voice. However, I’m not sure Romania will qualify this year.

First reherasal

To begin with it looks as if it could be singer Cristina  walking on stage all dressed in white. However when the close up came she was all dressed in purple and black. Two of the guitar players with masks on their heads do some dancing around her. They dance to the back of the stage and then return back to the front for a close up. On the stage are mannequins of many masked men. All this happens in the first part, the slow part of the song..

In what we can call part two, when the guitars crash in, the song comes alive. Cristina is not shy about shaking her head and swishing her hair all over the place on the stage. She starts walking around the stage and now many female mannequins can be seen on stage. On her walk around she comes across her cello player, who is dressed in white, and you now realise, this is who we saw at the beginning. On her walk we also see her pass the piano player.

When the camera pulls back to show the full stage, it looks like a clothes showroom with all these mannequins filling the stage. This is when you realise how big the stage is. The group all meet up at the end. There are five humans and probably thirty dummies on stage.

Vocally and musically there was nothing to fault. Cristina sang very well and the band worked well as an ensemble.

How The Humans were selected

In order to win the honour of representing Romania at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest, one had to go through a long selection process. During a month open for submissions, broadcaster TVR receieved 72 entries. All were invited to an audition. From that, 60 of the songs advanced to the live shows.

Five semi-finals featuring 12 songs each, that’s what Romania went through before they on the 25th of February had reached the final. 15 songs, three from each semi-final, battled it out. 100% televoting chose The Humans ahead of Alexia & Matei. Mihai, who represented the country in 2006, came 7th.

Romania at the Eurovision Song Contest

With 18 appearances, and 18 finals, Romania is one of the most successful Eurovision countries, that are yet to win. That is, if you look aside the years with pre-selections before the introduction of semi-finals. The country first tried to participate in 1993, but it wasn’t until 1994 they actually made it to Eurovision.

The country has been steady at the Eurovision Song Contest since 2002, although in 2016, Ovidiu Anton was disqualified a few weeks before the contest started due to TVR’s depth to EBU.

In 2005 by Luminița Anghel and again in 2010 represented by Paula Seling & Ovi, Romania finished third – which to date is their best placement, but they also have Mihai’s fourth place, a 7th place from 2017 and finally a 9th place from 2002, as other good top 10 results.