Ilinca - Amici

May 30, 2017 Critic Jonni 1 Comments

Amici - Ilinca |

My Eurovision 2017 Special may have finished, but I might as well keep going for the rest of the week, especially since Ilinca released this song shortly after her performance on the Eurovision 2017 stage, proving that she has a beautiful voice and doesn't always have to yodel, like she does in "Yodel It!". I truly believe she's an incredible talent that is going to follow in the footsteps of massive Romanian female artists like Inna, Alexandra Stan, and Antonia. Ilinca will be the next global Romanian name, mark my words. Wow, this was beautiful on first listen, but now there are English subtitles which makes this video and song completely out of this world! Ilinca is coming for the world, we all better be ready! Watch Ilinca sing to her Eurovision 2017 collaborator, Alex Florea, about wanting to be more than just friends in this heartbreaking music video for her second single "Amici".

Ilinca, real name Maria Ilinca Băcilă, has certainly set her sights on an international career. She has competed in many Romanian talent shows, starting off in the second season of Românii au talent, before going on to the third series of The X Factor Romania. She then participated in the fourth season of Vocea României, where she got to the semi-finals. Then she took part in Selecția Națională with the song "Yodel It!", which featured Alex Florea, they won their right to represent Romania at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, where they finish seventh in the Grand Final. This is her follow-up single and displays her incredible voice in a Romanian-language song about wanting to be more than just friends. This song was written by Theea Miculescu and Alex Cotoi.

Directed by Roman Burlaca, this music video has a very simple narrative behind it, yet it's a great concept and totally works with the song. Even without the English subtitle lyrics, it's pretty understandable what the song is about and totally relatable in every way. Alex Florea, who features on "Yodel It!" and performed on the Eurovision 2017 stage, alongside Ilinca; appears in this music video as her love interest.

A fully narrative music video, we watch as Ilinca has clearly told Alex Florea that she likes him more as a friend, and he can't deal with that because he doesn't see her that way. After some time, they both end up out of the car fighting and shoving and arguing, we can only imagine the words that are being thrown about. They're also quite rough, are all Romanians this hard? There's definitely vampire blood running through their bloodlines thanks to Dracula.

After a while, Ilinca points at a cloud in the sky, but when she turns to look at Alex Florea, his eyes are gone, and there's just blurred oval shapes replacing where his eyes should be. This is a massive metaphor for him not being able to see her the way she wants him to see her. There are a few cute moments during his blurred vision scene, but it's clearly fruitless and she's not getting what she wants out of him. His vision returns at the end and they walk down separate paths, no longer friends.

This is completely amazing, throughout. From the music video, to Ilinca's beautiful voice, to the amazing lyrics, to the subtitle English lyrics. The meaning behind this song reminds me of Taylor Swift's "Teardrops On My Guitar", and both this song and that song cuts deep to my heart, because every gay man can identify with the meaning of those songs; we've all fallen for a straight guy, even one with a girlfriend, and we've all wanted more from him, but even just being friends kills us inside.

Overall, this is incredible, Roman Burlaca has directed an amazing music video. It easily portrays the song effortlessly, and even without the English subtitles, the meaning comes across. The inclusion of Alex Florea's eyes becoming blurry was a nice additional twist to the storyline, although it still would've worked without that; regardless it made the story bigger and better if that was even possible. This works in every way, and Ilinca is a total Romanian star in the making!

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