Review: The Humans - Goodbye - Romania

TellyStats Rating:

7 Day YouTube Views: 82,397
7 Day YouTube Likes: 2,854

Following last year's excellent showing with 'Yodel It!', Romania return in 2018 with Goodbye, prophetic perhaps, as it's certain they'll be saying "goodbye" in the semi-finals.

The song is reminiscent of 80's classics, the vocal stylings reminded me of acts like Heart and Celine Dion. Nothing wrong with either of those performers except one thing - they're dated. This song feels like the worst of the wailing overly-emoted songs on that era. The lyrics do nothing to assist the situation, bland as could be. I've listened to this song multiple times and still couldn't tell you any of the lyrics. The vocals, particularly the chorus do seem to be sung on a single plane, if you're not paying attention it just sounds like you're being told off by an irate girlfriend.

With regards to the song structure, the song doesn't really get into it's stride until 1m 30s in - which is a lot for a 3 minute song. The chorus then brings in the rock guitar, which does at least improve the sound of the song, but this is counteracted by the quality of the vocals, much of it is the nagging sound mentioned above, the rest is long drawn out wailing into the mic (with pained expression). In summary, this song is featureless, dated and just generally, pretty poor.

Of the 43 competing acts, Romania are currently considered 40th most likely to win, fair enough. Their implied odds of progressing past their semi are low too, their YouTube stats are also among the lowest of all entrants. The bad news for Romania doesn't end there though, they sing second in the second semi-final, directly after what is likely to be a strong opener by Norway. This song will be forgotten by the audience halfway through the following track by Albania. An easy no-qualifier for Romania.