Romania 2026: Alexandra Capitanescu with 'Choke Me'
Romania are making their return to the contest this year with Alexandra Capitanescu cruising through the jury only National Final with ‘Choke Me’:
I didn't comment much on this at the time of selection but I saw a heavy fan/my more betting circle observer split. Maybe I need to delete my betfair account then because I actually quite like this and think there is some potential here.
This isn't re-inventing the wheel but it's a good rock chick song, musically very fitting to Eurovision. There's a certain predictability and comfort to the composition which is very straightforward but that's not really a bad thing and from our two rock entries this year (Serbia being the other) this is by far the more accessible and memorable and could benefit from some of the natural energy lifts and change of pace that genre often does.
Negatives and the title and whole choke me thing is quite cringe and takes a bit of getting over. Beyond that refrain this isn't really edgy enough to pull that off and it just feels a bit out of place - consider how easy the "show me" swap would be and whether that would actually neuter this in any meaningful way. There's some memorability gain but credibility loss too so on the whole it balances out and as always I'm not delving into any deeper supposed meaning or anything because that's just not going to come through. Alexandra can release all the statements she likes but the audience reaction will remain "Oh, kinky". As an aside on this whole debate, I do find it amusing that The Guardian is already crying about this , taking it seriously and somehow claiming the fandom as a majority are against this when there’s like 10 other entries I’ve seen branded as more ‘problematic’.
The more pressing issue is with the live for this. Alexandra is not the problem, Romania's broadcaster is, with TVR's national final this year on a shoestring budget and the last showing at the contest being for my money being the worst staging in the years I've been covering the contest, examples below:
For Maneskin's winning performance in 2021, a dream staging for any rock act, the template submitted to the EBU and host broadcaster detailing all the performance desires was supposedly 50 pages long. I don't trust TVR to have put as much thought into this and are instead more likely asking chatgpt "how can we stage a rock song without a pyro budget?"
Coming from a country with a bit of a pedigree for staging and I'd be more bullish on this but as this is Romania will probably have to settle for qualification, and that too isn't a guarantee.
Semi two is difficult and whilst this does have a strong niche, you can argue it is one of the least appealing entries here to jurors. We're in a bit of an unknown as to the previously strong Romanian diaspora too with them completely ignoring the last entry and not even having an entry the last two years. It's not the best semi anyway for them, but my opinion is this is strong enough to win them back and this will be in the televote's qualifiers. Jury probably has them out but overall this feels borderline. In the final this probably comes somewhere lower mid table but there is a path to more if they happen to nail this live…
Personal Rating: 19/20
Televote Potential: 14/20
Jury Potential: 11/20
Staging Potential: 15/20
Track Record: 7/20
Total Rating: 66/100
Early Prediction: Semi Two 8th-11th, 16th-20th in the Final.
Volatility Factor: 5/5 - Here's where the review really goes off the consensus rails and I say this has some top 10 (or higher) chances in the unlikely event this is staged amazingly and I'll be keeping my eye on what the odds are on this beyond qualification.