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 Romania on the Eurovision Stage

The Artist

Elena Gheorghe was born on July 30th, 1985 in Bucharest, Romania. Gheoghe grew up in a musical household, her mother was a folk artist and her father a priest. She made her musical debut at age 3, recording a song with her mother called Sus în Deal în Poieniţă. She was the lead singer in the band Mandinga from their start in 2002 until she left to go solo in 2005. The group released two albums in this time, De Corazon and Soarele Meu . She won the award for best song of 2007 at the Romanian Top Hit Music Awards. She married her husband, Cornel Ene, in 2011. He is a trombonist and has won several national and international awards.

Romanian National Identity

As examined in blog post 1, Romania’s national identity has shifted a fair amount in the last 100 years in an effort to westernize and fit in with the rest of Europe. The rest of Europe has begun to see their relationship with Romania blossom into a partnership, as Romania has joined the EU as well as NATO. The country has participated in Eurovision since 1994 and never won. Religion is a central part of Romanian national identity, as 85.3% of the population belongs to the Romanian Orthodox church. 

Femininity

The song is literally titled “The Balkan Girls” and describes the start of a weekend of partying for Gheorghe. The role of femininity is pretty clear, to have fun and to find a man. At first,  I thought this song would be a testament to female friendship, how all Gheorghe needs is to be surrounded by her female friends in order to have fun, but this is far from the actual message. Female friends really just act as a means to getting a man. While getting a man would be supported by the Orthodox Church, they might not be as supportive of the means. Femininity in the church is a much quieter role, one that does not include partying, drinking and kissing random boys at dances.

Climate in 2009

2009 was a big year for Europe. The European parliamentary elections where set to be held in June, where over 400 million Europeans set out to elect 736 members of the European Parliament. Also, discussion about the Lisbon Treaty would continue. Hope for policy change was heard around the world, as Barack Obama was beginning his presidency in the United States at this time. 

Party Culture

The song is cheerful, catchy and repetitive but has a much darker story to tell, upon further inspection. The second line makes a direct reference to alcohol. Party culture and drinking is a huge issue in the Balkan states. Alcoholism is a real issue that has been tormenting these countries for generations. According to the Diagnostic Statistic Manual-5 (DSM-5), alcohol use disorder is defined as “impaired control over alcohol consumption with chronic, heavy and often escalating pattern of alcohol use despite significant detrimental consequences to their overall health, the lives of their family members and friends and society in general”. Of all of the Balkan countries, Romania has had the highest rate of disability affected years (Todorovic). Even tough Romania has been largely affected by the disorder, they still chose to use media that glorifies it to represent themselves.

Lyrical Deep Dive

Before discussing the content of the lyrics, it is important to notice that the song is in English which not widely spoken in Romania or any of the Balkan States that are being referenced in the song. The lyrics tell a story of unwinding after a long week. It starts off by saying “I’m going to start with gin tonic and lime”, a testament to how intertwined party culture is with alcohol. The phrase “the Balkan girls they like to party, like nobody, like nobody” is repeated throughout the song as the chorus.  The song boils Balkan culture down to a youthful, hedonistic one. It appears as though they are very proud of this. Female friendship is touched on in the song. Gheorghe also belts out a line about “kissing a boy” and “maybe he’ll be my prince.” This line is in pretty direct opposition to a lot of the orthodox culture in Romania, a fact that must not have flown over Gheorghe’s head considering her families history of priesthood. It is also important to point out that this song chose to celebrate and represent Balkan culture, not just Romania’s. 

Set Design Deep Dive

The performance starts with an aerial shot of the set, showing two female dancers in flowing green  and blue dresses. There is a large object that seems to be made of stone rotate to reveal Elena Gheorghe, the performer. Her dress is a peachy color and is adorned in rhinestones. A fog machine is used at the start of the performance as well. The choreography of the background dancers works well to highlight Gheorghe and keep the focus on her. The camera angles are pretty simple, with most of the performance being a wide shot of the stage. The LED display in the back shows several images, one of light sparkles before a dark background and many pink trees in a forest. The costumes are quite revealing of the girls, with a tight, cutout top and long flowing skirts with high slits. 

Word count: 895

References 

J Todorovic, M Santric- Milicevic, Z Terzic-Supic, A Stevanovic, Z Stamenkovic, N Terzic, L Scepanovic, T Albreht, S Stoisavljevic, Burden of alcohol use disorder in Balkan countries, European Journal of Public Health, Volume 32, Issue Supplement 3, October 2022, ckac130.190 Evason, 

Nina. 2019. “Romanian Culture - Religion.” Cultural Atlas. 2019. https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/romanian-culture/romanian-culture-religion. 

Sustainability (IDOS), German Institute of Development and. n.d. “2009 - the Year of Europe? Yes, We Must!” Www.idos-Research.de. Accessed February 27, 2024. https://www.idos-research.de/en/the-current-column/article/2009-the-year-of-europe-yes-we-must-1/.n