Eurovision: Chatting To The Entrants - Theodor Andrei

Theodor Andrei has had an eventful few years. From first rising to prominence on the Romanian version of The Voice Kids, he went on to compete on The X Factor before releasing his debut album, FRAGIL. He was then revealed as one of the 12 entries for Selecția Națională 2023. He went on to win and will now represent Romania at Eurovision. We caught up with him to learn a little more.

Hi, first and foremost, how are you?

I’m really, really fine, thank you! It is an absolute pleasure making this interview! It’s been a long day, with rehearsals for Eurovision, for a concert I’m having in Bucharest this week and for 2 theatrical plays I’m in. Yet still I’m happy to see what are your curiosities, haha!

What an exciting 2023 so far... You must be thrilled with how it's playing out. What's been the highlight?

Definitely the biggest achievement was the National Final win but this whole ride [has] been a thrilling experience ever since. I enjoy interviews a lot, more and more people get my album and come to my concerts and plays and I’m simply flattered of all the wonderful messages I’ve received. Some people texted me that they have discovered my music through D.G.T (Off And On)” and my songs helped them get past some really dark periods of their life and learn to smile again – and I think there’s no bigger compliment than that. And actually I think that’s the way music has to be – written from the heart to go to someone else’s heart – a party anthem for a happy person and a shoulder to cry on for a broken one. I think love is the answer to all of the questions and people understand music in the exact same amount that music understands them.

We absolutely love D.G.T (Off and On). Tell us a little about the process behind the scenes in creating the song?

The song D.G.T (Off And On) stages a love story where reason is in conflict with instinct, where passion and safety duel - a song about a love that becomes an addiction with both its good and bad sides as well as the pleasure of returning to something harmful, where love is grounded and adrenaline makes decisions, a necessary evil with love and all that it means - passion, sex, tears, smiles, childhood, maturity, trust, risks, truths and lies. D.G.T (Off And On) started as a game - I started making the instrumental of the song out of boredom and then I started adding elements and I started to like it, and then I started writing lines for the chorus.

I recorded the chorus in the form it was then and sent the project to my friend Luca De Mezzo, with whom I wrote the 2 pre-choruses and part C of the song. I did all these 3 on a video call, and then I wrote the first verse myself and finished the instrumental of the song in just one week. I sent the instrumental to my friends Mikail Jahed and Luca Udateanu and together we wrote the 2nd verse of the song, in its original form - the one that is in Romanian - which can be found on my album FRAGIL in duet with Luca Udateanu.

For the Eurovision version, I chose to do the 2nd verse in English because I felt that it gives a nice dynamic to the song and it is among the few songs that I know where this combination does not disturb. Of course, I was inspired by 2 songs that I really like, namely De La Capat (All Over Again) - the song that was performed by Voltaj in Eurovision 2015 - which also used both Romanian and the English languages, and Pe-o Margine de Lume - the superb song by Andrei Tudor, which Nico and Vlad Mirita sang in Romanian and Italian at the 2008 edition of Eurovision - this is also one of the favorite songs of my mother. I also sang it at one point when I was younger.


Did you always intend the song for Eurovision?

So D.G.T was originally a full Romanian song included in my debut album FRAGIL which was released in October 2022. 2 weeks after the release I made the Eurovision version, adapting half of the song to English and making it have more complex vocal lines, cause I believed and I still believe that there has never been a song like this one to Eurovision, and even more – Romania has never sent such a song. Along with the cool atmosphere, rock’n’roll spirit and energy, the song itself is really personal. The whole album means a lot to me. It has 13 tracks and it presents 13 chapters and love stories, most of them about a specific one that really messed me up. A relationship that flew me high up with the clouds and the stars and then threw me to the ground until I broke into pieces. It’s not something I can easy talk about. I just put my thoughts and feeling into the music after being lied to, cheated on for months on end whilst I felt guilty for the way she was treating me and then she’d say she loves me and she doesn’t want me to leave but still I was the problem somehow.

It was such chaotic that I lost myself trying to find her love again, cause there was a time when I really felt she loved me and it felt wonderful and genuine and I felt blessed, but suddenly it was more of a curse. I used to hear about the things she was hiding from all of my friend yet only believe what she was saying and she was always denying. In time I got so tired of being in a relationship but loving her and having her say she loves me but don’t act like there’s love because she was not ok...One time she cheated on me with my best friend and that was the worse thing I’ve ever felt in my life. When I found out it was already 2 months after it happened and she told me she was so afraid and so guilty that she tried to hurt herself and I did forgive her…then It all repeated couple of times, even with different guys and I thought I was the problem and so I started drinking too much at parties just as my Gheata-n Pahar”lyrics says “I just want some ice in my drink just enough so I don’t think about her and her barefoot dances”, I had a period of suicidal thoughts in which I wrote the song Nu Renunta la Noi that has this lyric “I promise you I’ll send you my love using the rain” (and every time it rains from the sky, you’ll know I’m up there and I still love you). It was a chapter in my life that I got passed to, I accepted it and all this music came out of it, even D.G.T which Is sort of a Rock’N’Roll, blues, sexy resume of this holy story.

Have you always been a big fan of Eurovision?

Eurovision is my childhood dream. I remember that every year I watched Eurovision with my family when I was a child and I kept telling myself that I would be there too. And I tried 3 years in a row. Initially, everyone told me that I was crazy, that I didn't know what I was getting myself into, that it would be difficult and that everyone would criticize me. I feel that I have taken a big step towards realizing my dream. I tried to make a song like our country has never sent to the grand final. I tried to make a fusion of several genres that would be beautiful for both Romanians and foreigners, and D.G.T (Off And On) - the song I wrote together with Luca De Mezzo, Mikail Jahed and Luca Udateanu - it ended up being highly appreciated by the foreign audience. Above the language barrier - the record has an atmosphere of its own and the fact that it has reached the souls of people both in the country and abroad makes me extremely happy. I think this is what art is really about - not about things that are quickly consumed, waves, trends and other ephemeral concepts, but about message, emotion, about souls, about the way a score moves your heart along with the notes, about the way it changes your mood, about what it awakens in you. Music is about people, not influences. People feel the music as much as the music feels them.

Music is everywhere with you, and yes...the songs of the moment are lovely and have their place and their role. But people always come back to the songs made from the soul for the soul and I think that this is my mission and for the people who understand the message of the song, they like the way it sounds, they find themselves, it is worth making any sacrifice so that my show is as good as possible.

Who is your favourite Eurovision entry of all time?

From the whole history of Eurovision, because I'm quite an old-fashioned guy and I have a special love for more retro music like that, I would say that the moments closest to my heart would be Johnny Logan - Hold Me Now (Ireland 1987), Mikel Herzog - Que Voy a Hacer Sin Ti? (Spain 1998) and, even if it didn't go to the Grand Final of Eurovision in the end - Ovidiu Anton - Moment Of Silence (Romania 2016) - it's a song that touched me in a different way during the time when it came out because I was still a constant victim of bullying at school and this song helped me relieve myself a lot.

If you had to file it between two other songs, what would they be and why...

I think definitely something like KALEO’s Broken Bones and Gary Moore’s Oh, Pretty Woman – these are 2 of my favorite songs and I think D.G.T fits their atmosphere.

Who do you feel is your stiffest competition?

I can't wait to see what acts my colleagues have prepared for the final. I like some songs more, others less, but this is purely subjective. I'm the type that values the harmonic complexity of a song, the voice of the performer, the powerful personality of an artist on a song. We're all good, everyone has their strengths, but I don't believe in competition - I want to make the best performance there, but that's only up to me. It is by no means a matter of rivalry between us. Probably even interesting collaborations will come out after the final. I choose music over pride.

What can we expect from your Liverpool performance?

So in the National Final I tried to combine as many elements from my world in it as possible - from which a certain theatricality resulted that delighted some, and others less so... I put my opinions and ideas at the moment. We have 2 undresses - once I am undressed by girls and once by boys - which is a reference to acceptance, understanding and equality. We have a moment of sign language that was not meant to attract attention, I put it especially for those who can understand it, to make a moment for everyone, in which no one is discriminated. It is true that we tried to reinterpret Michelangelo's famous picture with God and Adam almost touching their fingers and some understood, some did not. I was saddened by the fact that some people summed up my moment in emptiness and vulgarity, when in fact the message was a deep one - namely that only when we realize that we are ultimately just pieces of earth (like Adam) can we understand that the only things what differentiates us are the circumstances and the choices, but in us identical hearts beat, with 4 chambers, with smiles and tears.


I am not the very religious type, but I felt that it is an appropriate message for the moment and respects the principle that guides me - namely that I do not want to be just a name in a list of participating countries, I want to do something that will remain time. Only when we take off our clothes, ideologies, assumptions and prejudices can we get to the truth - that's why clothes kept coming off. The message "Make Love Not War" was put there for several reasons. And because it had a direct reference to the lyrics of the song that describe an inner war of returning to a necessary evil of love, (so this war in love) and because the current situation in the world we live in needs such an exhortation for us humans as well we are in a continuous war between us because we judge each other, because we discriminate against each other, because we do not appreciate each other enough and, last but not least, because it is a quote from John Lennon, a member of The Beatles, an emblematic band for Liverpool.

Maybe I didn't illustrate too clearly either, maybe it was too much and didn't have its place. I do not know. I don't regret it, but I certainly learned something from it, and the Liverpool show will keep the message but the approach will be different. I thank those from home who voted because without them I would not have won and I would not have gotten closer to my dream today. The show for Liverpool will be extremely different. We work every day for 7-8 hours for this moment and we have things almost ready already because we mobilized ahead of time. It was more difficult at the beginning because I had my vision as the director of the moment and as the composer of the piece compared to the vision of the director from TVR, but we managed to keep the best of everyone's ideas and, I think, to create exactly what I wanted - a show like never before at Eurovision - something memorable. Some things will be kept, others we have given up, it is certain that the moment will also have Rock'N'Roll and metaphor and mystery, but above all this a lot of soul.

What is your Eurovision ambition?

It’s time to believe in the youth, time to believe in change and time to believe in the strength to go pass the boundaries and insecurities and accept ourselves and love each other freely. It’s time for the rebellion and spirit of freedom and Rock’N’Roll. And that’s why I make “D.G.T” my statement and I encourage people to vote for Romania in this year’s Eurovision. Make love, not war! Love freely! That’s the answer to all of the questions. Long live Rock’N’Roll!

And lastly, aside from Eurovision, what other 2023 plans do you have?

I have many projects planned, I will have 7 more premieres at the theater this year, including -Amadeus by Peter Shaffer, The Taming of the Shrew and Hamlet by William Shakespeare, A Snow Flower - adaptation by Theodor Andrei after Old Times Snowfalls by Dumitru Solomon, Without Sun - adaptation after The Lower Dephts by Maxim Gorki).

The two musicals written by me and the young author Brianna Dociu will be released - Aripile Jos(Broken Wings) - a unique musical that sheds light on the problems of the educational system in Romania and how they can kill artists; Aici Incepe Viata (This Is Where Life Begins). I will release new music-videos and new songs from my next album entitled ECHILIBRU (EQUILIBRIUM) which brings Rockabilly music, Blues and of course Rock and Funk songs into the same universe. And between all this, with a bit of luck, I will see how thousands of foreigners come to see the Eurovision 2024 Grand Final in Romania! Let's bring Rock'n'Roll back to Eurovision and give it the place it deserves.