Romania Entry: Elena - The Balkan Girls (Promotional Video)
The Balkan Girls - Elena |
It's Thursday Revisit, so of course, I was going to do this song by Elena, since she was in the Eurovision Song Contest after all. I also believe I've seen this music video on the music channels years ago, and the fact that it charted in the UK shows how much this was well received in this country. The video on the official Eurovision YouTube channel is a bit on the blurry side but we can deal. Elena represented Romania at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. She came 19th overall with 49 points. The song sure is catchy, it's just a shame she didn't do better in the contest. Watch Elena, backed up by two women, dance around and completely nail choreography, in this music video for Eurovision 2009 song "The Balkan Girls".
Elena, full name Elena Ghorghe, was originally in Latin group Mandinga, who have had a string of hit singles and albums and went on to represent Romania at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012 with "Zaleilah"; this was all after Elena left the group to pursue a solo career. Since Eurovision 2009, Elena has built her career and has released some amazing hits, I still can't get "Mamma Mia (He's Italiano)" out of my head when I hear it. I truly believe she has a great voice and could have an internationally successful song in the future. She was chosen as the Romanian representative through Selecția Națională, which she won; it's just a shame she didn't do better during the Grand Final. The song was written by Laurentiu Duta, Ovidiu Bistriceanu, Alexandru Pelin, and Daris Mangal.
There are officially two music videos, one released in promotion of Selecția Națională in January 2009, which is the one I'm reviewing, and then there's an official music video that was released in March 2009 (which I'll probably end up reviewing at a later date). This music video / promotional video was filmed at a TVR 1 studio.
There are two main scenes, one is a slight narrative which then leads into the main dance scene, and then there is a slight segmented performance piece throughout. Elena is looking fierce, totally embodying superstardom in every way.
We watch Elena ride a horse with her two backing dancers doing the same. They ride them to this spiral staircase which they then descend. This leads them to a venue, or in this case, the studio, where they all perform amazing choreography in sync and perfectly relating to the song throughout.
The performance segment sees Elena on a silver couch, performing the song engagingly. A male dancer appears in a hallway and performs a great dance sequence. It might have been a great added touch to see him and Elena perform together at the end.
Overall, the music video doesn't have a lot going for it, but Elena and all the dancers make up for it by performing and giving it their all. After looking back at her performance during the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, I do much prefer the music video as the girls aren't exactly in-sync. Regardless, Elena gave it her all on that stage, and she could've faired much worse. It is quite a forgettable song and stage production, which probably didn't help; and I only just remember it way back when I watched this show in 2009.
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