Romania: Interview with Aris | Female manipulation, the third attempt for Eurovision and the revamp to come! (Video)

After the announcement of her participation in this year’s Romanian national final, Selecția Națională 2022, Aris talks exclusively to EurovisionFun and Apostolos Bogiannos and Giorgos Zefteridis.

Aris is one of the artists who will compete for a place in the final of the Romanian national selection for Eurovision 2022, and will try to represent her country with the song “Do svidaniya“.

Last Friday we had the live auditions and I can’t wait for the release of the video and people’s reactions. Many people thought the song was Russian however 90% of the lyrics are in English and it’s about a manipulated woman who at one point stands in front of her abuser and says “Do svidaniya” (goodbye). It is about all women who are afraid to make this change in their lives and stay trapped in such a relationship.

The Russian title in “Do svidaniya” is used metaphorically to refer to a cold and toxic relationship between a couple. Thinking about Eurovision was something that occured after the song had been written:

Although I am a composer, I didn’t write the song. I got in touch with the creators last September and when we wrote it we hadn’t originally discussed the Eurovison scenario. When the applications for the national final opened they asked me if I would like to take part with this song and at that moment I was in the middle of a trip. So somehow I managed to record and send them the vocal part exactly one day before the deadline. I didn’t tell anyone about it until the shortlist was published and a friend asked me if I had submitted a song for the competition.

Regarding her stage presentation in the national final, Aris states that:

It will be a surprise. I have some ideas but I can’t say anything yet. In the first phase of the auditions it will just be me with a microphone. In the semi-final I’ll come with a TV addition if we’re allowed. If I qualify for the final you will see a full show.

She says that she hasn’t listened to any of the rest songs as she prefers to focus on her own performance without being unintentionally influenced by the other competing songs.

Her favourite Romanian entry is that of Luminița Anghel & Sistem (2005) while from the competition in general she singles out many entries including those of Maneskin (Italy 2021), Mahmood (Italy 2019), maNga (Turkey 2010), Elnur & Samir (Azerbaijan 2008) and Chingiz (Azerbaijan 2019).

Since I was a child I was watching the Eurovision phenomenon and it was one of my dreams to be on the stage of this contest and make Romania proud. I don’t know if it will happen this year or any of the next years but I know it will happen at some point. I had tried two other times before. In 2012 as a member of the band T&L after our fourth place in X-Factor Romania , with the song “Twilight” and in 2015 as Lara Lee with the song “Superman“.

Just before the end of the interview, Aris shared with us an acapella part of her entry and revealed that there will be a revamp of her entry that will be released within February.

Watch the full exclusive interview with Aris in the video below:

Listen to “Do Svidaniya“, Aris‘ participation in Selecția Națională 2022!