Paula Seling

Seling at the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen (2014)

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Singles

Playing with Fire (with Ovi )   CH 51 06/13/2010 (1 week)

Paula Seling (born December 25, 1978 in Baia Mare ), also known as Paula , is a Romanian singer. In 2010 and 2014 she took part in the Eurovision Song Contest for her home country together with the singer Ovi .

biography

Training and first public appearances

Paula Seling started playing the piano at the age of six. Four years later she joined the school choir and began to appear in regional and national piano and choral music competitions from the age of eleven. In 1994 Seling moved to the art college in her hometown and joined the band Enders as a keyboardist . With the formation they played successfully on several music festivals, which among other things, to win the Golden Bears from Baia Mare and the first place at the Harmony Festival of Bucharest led.

After the band split up, Seling, who had loved the German hard rock band Scorpions from an early age, pursued a solo career as a singer. In 1996 she won the Aurelian Andreescu Trophy and in the same year she took part in the famous music festival “Golden Deer” in Brașov for the first time . In 1997 she graduated from Gheorghe Șincai State University in her hometown. She won the Mamaia trophy and recorded her first album in Germany, the fully English-language Only Love . From 1998 she turned to jazz-rock , soul and rhythm and blues as preferred musical styles. A second album followed, the Romanian- language Știu că exist ( German  I know that I exist ) and she appeared as a pre-artist at a concert by Chick Corea in Bucharest.

Breakthrough as a singer

Led by the Romanian artist Nicu Alifantis, Seling released her third album De dragoste ( German  for love ) in 1999 . The title contained on it Ploaie în luna lui Marte ( German  rain in the month of Mars ) was named "Hit of the Year" at the Mamaia Festival . In 2001 she worked on three albums: Ma voi întoarce ( German  I'll come back ; together with her brother Paul), the completely self-written Știi ce înseamnă ( German  you know what it means ) and the best-of album Prima selectie ( German  First choice ).

Seling achieved her breakthrough as a singer in Romania in 2002. She was retrospectively recognized by the Romanian music industry as best artist and won the award for the best music video for the song Serile verii ( German summer evenings ) at the domestic MTV Music Awards . Honored as Woman of the Year by the Romanian women's magazine Avantaje , she also won the “Golden Deer” music festival in Brașov and was the subject of a documentary by the British Tony Hawks .  

Seling was unable to build on the great success of 2002 in the following years, despite further published albums. An album planned for the French market in 2003 was never realized. In spring 2005, Seling and her brother Paul founded their own record label - Unicorn Records . The year before she had competed unsuccessfully at the Romanian MTV Music Awards with the song Timpul ( German  Die Zeit ) for the prize for the best Romanian artist. With the single Believe from her twelfth solo album of the same name, she was able to place herself in the top 40 of the Romanian charts in 2009.

Participation in the Eurovision Song Contest

Play media file

Paula Seling & Ovi (2014)

As a pre-artist for internationally known professional colleagues such as Al Bano , Michael Bolton and Beyoncé , Seling also took part in the Romanian preliminary round for the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), the Selecția Națională, several times in the course of her career . She made her debut in 1998 with the Romanian-language song Te iubesc ( German  I love you ) and achieved fourth place when her compatriot Mălina Olinescu won. Five years later, she came third with the English-language title Let's Go Take It Straight (2003). In 2004 Seling reached sixth place with the Romanian song Perfect , in 2008 in a duet with the band Provincialii for Sapte zile ( German  seven days ) again third place.

After the renewed defeat at the Romanian ESC preliminary decision, Seling took part in 2009 as a juror at the music festival in Brașov. There she met the Romanian-Norwegian participant Ovidiu "Ovi" Cernăuțeanu , who had also twice unsuccessfully participated in the Norwegian ESC preliminary decision. 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 round for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo. She made a second start with It's not too late , together with Kamara Ghedi. With Ovi, she won both the jury and the telephone vote and prevailed against 14 other candidates (with Ghedi she took fifth place). Paula Seling and Ovi represented Romania at the 55th Eurovision Song Contest on May 27, 2010 in Oslo in the second semi-final. 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, Seling and Cernăuțeanu began a promotional tour at the end of March 2010, which took the two to 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 she won again in the Romanian preliminary round together with Ovi , this time with the song Miracle . They reached twelfth place for Romania in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 .

Private

In 2005 Paula Seling married Radu Bucura, who is the co-founder of Unicorn Records .

Discography

Seling at the Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo (2010)

Albums

• 1998: Only love
• 1998: Știu că exist
• 1998: Colinde și cântece sfinte
• 1999: De dragoste
• 2001: Mă voi întoarce
• 2001: Știi ce înseamnă
• 2001: Prima selecție
• 2002: Albumul de Crăciun
• 2003: Fără sfârșit
• 2006: De Sărbători
• 2009: Culeg vise
• 2009: Believe

Web links

Commons : Paula Seling  - Collection of Images

• Official website (English)
• Profile at eurovision.de (German)
• Meet Paula & Ovi from Romania at eurovisionfamily.tv, March 21, 2010 (English)
• Profile at eurovision.tv (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Charts CH
2. ↑ ^{a b} cf. Biography ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at paulaseling.com (English; accessed April 2, 2010) 
3. ↑ cf. Profile at eurovision.de (accessed April 1, 2010)
4. ↑ cf. Schacht, Andreas: Germany Wins Eurovision Song Contest! at eurovision.tv, May 30, 2010 (accessed May 30, 2010)