After the announcement of her participation in this year’s Romanian national final, Selecția Națională 2022, Eliza G talks exclusively to EurovisionFun reporter, Apostolis Matamis.
Eliza is one of the artists that will compete in the hopes of winning a ticket for the final of the Romanian national selection process for Eurovision 2022 and is bidding to represent her country with the song “The Other Half of Me”.
Even though she is a permanent resident of Italy, she will attempt to represent Romania in Turin instead, which is her home country.
I am connected with Romania. The first year was in 2019, when I got invited at a Romanian festival. I went without any great expectations, but I won the first prize! I am really proud of that, it was one of the most amazing moments of my life. And now I said “Why not?”. I have a strong bond with Romania, I have lots of friends there. When there was an open call for foreign artists, I said, “I’ll go” and here I am, I am at the semi-final. After all, these two countries are deeply connected with each other. More than one million Romanians live in Italy and vice versa. They’re sister countries!
Last week, she recorded her performance at the studios of TVR and she feels absolutely satisfied about the final outcome of her song, “The Other Half of Me”.
The song is partly in Italian and partly in English. It is a love song, but it is not exclusively related to some love affair but also in family and friendly relations. Generally speaking, it talks about our relationship with any person we might care for or feel close to. People, in their lives, they fight, they make mistakes and choose the wrong path sometimes. And they end up being scared that they might lose someone really close to them, when it’s actually too late already and they’re already gone. Then you realise what they were really worth. And in my song, I talk about that kind of situation, when you’ve lost a person and you are in the place where you used to live, all alone and then you realise how much you miss them, feeling it so intensely, as they were your other half. With my song, I want to emphasise on the hope that the mistakes we make, can show how that first stage of a forthcoming loss can feel like.
The initial version of the song, that was written entirely in Italian by two really renowned Italian composers, was kept by Eliza in her vault. Later on, a composer from the United Kingdom assisted in writing the english version of “The Other Half of Me” and then it was decided that a mixed version should be formed, containing both languages, which was not initially targeting the Eurovision Song Contest. The decision to submit the song to the national selection process of Romania, came a while later.
Romania is a country with really broad horizons and is welcoming artists from all over the world, so I thought it is a great opportunity. I am so proud of this. And maybe, one of my next steps in terms of music, would be a future participation at the festival of Sanremo!
Apart from Romania, in 2021 she took part in a popular Albanian festival, where she says she’s gained a lot of experience.
She mentions that she has listened to all the songs of her contestants.
I have listened to all the songs, but I would prefer not to compare any, because it would be so unfair. We are all here for the same reason. What I would like to point out is that there are lots of nice songs, exceptional artists and I am really curious to see how they will sound like when performed live, because that is the moment when you actually understand what kind of feelings they can pull out of you.
In case she wins, Eliza will participate at the Eurovision Song Contest which will be held at the country where she currently lives:
I hope the timing is right. It would be really interesting. I have a lot of friends here. As an Italian woman, it would be really interesting if I had the chance to present a song partly in Italian, in my own country, representing Romania.
Her favourite Italian entry is the one of Diodato (2020) while from the entire contest she loves the song of Salvador Sobral (Portugal 2017).
A few moments before the end of the interview, Eliza sang for us a small part of her song acapella.
You can watch the entire exclusive interview with Eliza at the video below:
You can listen to “The Other Half of Me“, Eliza’s song for Selecția Națională 2022, at the video below!
Watch the Live-on-Tape performance of “Hope” by Stefan:
Watch the Live-on-Tape performance of “Llámame” by WRS:
Watch the Live-on-Tape performance of “River” by Ochman: