Crossing the Black Sea, heading west for Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova, three more countries I don’t know much about. Romania is familiar to me only because of Dracula. Through Dracula, I learned about Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler, who was a scary enough dude without also being a vampire.

Mandinga is representing Romania with the pop song, Zaleilah

I tried Google Translate and a Google search, but couldn’t find out what “Zaleilah” means in English. Perhaps it’s a name. Anyway, catchy tune and I’m always a sucker for a drum line. Add the bagpipes and an accordion, and I’m so in. The singer is a hot babe with a nice voice, though she sounded auto-tuned. I mean, really auto-tuned. I enjoyed this, but I’m not convinced until I see them in a live performance.

Sofi Marinova is representing Bulgaria with the dance song, Love Unlimited

After I watched this canned performance, all I could think is, “She’s got to be better than this.” And she is! I found this live performance video on YouTube.

Wow! Okay, now, this I would like on my iPod. Great voice, great performance and a fun, catchy dance tune. If she brings this to the competition, I think she has a chance.

Pasha Parfeny is representing Moldova with the pop song, Lăutar

“This trumpet makes you my girl.” Is that a double entendre? No, don’t answer that. Google Translate doesn’t do Moldovan, but I discovered, through Wikipedia, that Moldovan is similar to Romanian. In Romanian, “Lăutar” means “fiddler.” What happened to the trumpet? Anyway, this was all right. I liked the music better than the singing. Another entry where I wish the singer was performing in his native language, though I don’t know if that would have improved his voice.

Of these three countries, Bulgaria is the winner for me. How about you? Any favorites so far?

These videos are from the list of Eurovison 2012 contestants on YouTube.