Ovidiu Cernăuțeanu

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Ovi at the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen (2014)
Ovi at the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen (2014)
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Playing with Fire (with Paula Seling )
  CH 51 06/13/2010 (1 week)

Ovidiu "Ovi" Cernăuțeanu (born August 23, 1974 in Botoșani ), also known under the names Ovi Martin , Ovidiu Jacobsen or Bill Martin , is a Romanian - Norwegian singer and composer who worked for Romania in 2010 and 2014 together with the singer Paula Seling participated in the Eurovision Song Contest .

biography

Early career

Ovidiu Cernăuțeanu was born in northeast Romania. Already as a child he took a liking to music and at the age of 14 he won the Romanian singing competition Florile Dragostei . He then gained experience in various bands, among others together with his father and his former music teacher.

In the early 1990s, the illegal entry into Germany failed with a friend with whom Cernăuțeanu had recorded a demo tape. At the age of 18 he then traveled to Tokyo with his bandmates . After a year in Japan, he followed a job offer to Norway , where he married and received Norwegian citizenship under the name Ovidiu Jacobsen. Based on Billy Joel , he earned his living under the stage name Bill Martin for a long time as a piano player in Norwegian and Danish bars.

Eurovision Song Contest

Paula Seling & Ovi (2014)

Cernăuțeanu later released a dance album in Greenland with the Danish music producer Morten Stjernholm with Nanu Disco . In 2006 he took part in the Norwegian preliminary round of the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens, the Melodi Grand Prix, under the stage name Ovi Martin . With the English-language song The Better Side of Me written by Even Olsen, however, he was eliminated in the preliminary round. In the same year, a collaboration with the American music producer Preston Glass was broken up.

In early February 2009, Cernăuțeanu released his first album, This Gig Almost Got Me Killed . A few weeks later he took part in the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix a second time. With the contribution Seven Seconds, written and composed by Simone Larsen (which has nothing to do with the world hit 7 Seconds of the same name by Youssou N'Dour and Neneh Cherry from 1994), he reached the finals, but was able to win the eventual ESC winner Alexander Rybak did not place in the top four.

Paula Seling & Ovi (2014) in Copenhagen

After losing again in the Norwegian ESC preliminary round, Cernăuțeanu traveled to his native Romania, where he took part in the famous music festival "Golden Deer" in Brașov in September 2009 . There he took third place and won the audience award. In Brașov, Cernăuțeanu also met the Romanian singer Paula Seling , who acted as a juror at the event and who herself had unsuccessfully participated in the Romanian ESC preliminary decision several times in the past. From the acquaintance, a joint collaboration developed, which resulted in the song Playing With Fire . With the English-language piano and vocal number written and composed by Cernăuțeanu, he and Seling competed at the beginning of March 2010 as the duo Paula Seling & Ovi in the Romanian preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest, the Selecția Națională . The two were able to win both the jury and the telephone vote and prevailed against 15 other candidates. They represented Romania at the 55th Eurovision Song Contest on May 27, 2010 in Oslo in the second semifinals. They made it into the final, which took place two days later, where they took third place behind Lena from Germany and the Turkish band maNga .

After winning the Romanian preliminary round, Cernăuțeanu and Seling began a promotional tour at the end of March 2010, which will take them through Moldova, Belgium, Austria, Portugal and Greece until their ESC appearance in Oslo. The music video for Playing With Fire was largely made in the Romanian region of Transylvania .

In 2014 he again represented Romania together with Paula Seling at the Eurovision Song Contest , this time with the song Miracle . They finished twelfth in the final.

Private

Ovidiu Cernăuțeanu is the father of two sons.

Discography

Albums

  • This Gig Almost Got Me Killed (2009)
  • A Bit of Pop Won't Hurt Anyone (2014)

Web links

Commons : Ovidiu Cernăuțeanu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Charts CH
  2. ↑ cf. Profile at eurovision.de (accessed April 1, 2010)
  3. ↑ a b cf. Interview at stiri.botosani.ro, March 7, 2009 (Romanian; accessed April 1, 2010)
  4. ↑ cf. Schacht, Andreas: Germany Wins Eurovision Song Contest! at eurovision.tv, May 30, 2010 (accessed May 30, 2010)
personal data
SURNAME Cernăuțeanu, Ovidiu
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ovi (stage name); Martin, Ovi (stage name); Martin, Bill (stage name); Jacobsen, Ovidiu (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian-Norwegian singer and composer
DATE OF BIRTH 23rd August 1974
PLACE OF BIRTH Botoșani