Yodel It! on the ‘Selecția Națională’ 2017
The submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries was opened by TVR between 20th December 2016 and 22nd of January 2017.
A total of 84 entries were received, all of which would get to participate in the televised audition stage. These auditions were held on the 27th, 28th, and 29 January and broadcast on a number of Romanian TV channels between February 5 and 11. From these songs, 15 songs qualified to the semi-final held on February 26, where a jury determined which 10 songs would qualify for the final held on March the 5th. The winner was then determined by 100% televoting.
On 5 March 2017, at Studioul Pangratti, in Bucharest, ‘Selecția Națională’ 2017 was hosted by Iuliana Tudor and Dan Helciug, while Ioana Voicu was the greenroom correspondent. The winner was determined solely by the public vote. Guest performers for the final included Manel Navarro, SunStroke Project, and Timebelle along with ABBA tribute band Arrival.
“Yodel It!” performed by Ilinca and Alex Florea emerged as the winner after gaining the most votes from the televoting.
“Yodel It!” is a song recorded by Romanian singers Ilinca and Alex Florea, released on 30 January 2017 by Cat Music. The track was written by Alexandra Niculae and produced by Mihai Alexandru for the Swiss band Timebelle who rejected it.
The music video for “Yodel It!” was uploaded to Cat Music’s YouTube channel on 21st of April 2017. The video was a shot over three days in Cluj-Napoca by Dan Petcan. The cinematography was handled by Florin Bălan, with production by Vali Aniță and Sergiu Stoiadin. The video features scenes in the Cluj-Napoca Central Park, Piața Unirii, on the roof of an NTT DATA building and in front of the National Theatre. It was sponsored by Visit Cluj, a city program run by the municipal government.