Last Saturday the Romanian public and jury decided that Locomondo will represent Romania in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. Liubi, liubi I love you is a fun song by an unusual group that follows in the steps of LT United, forming for the occasion by five professional musicians and a chance member.

The ride to the Romanian final was a rough one, with disqualifications, plagiarism accusations and withdrawals. Marius Moga and Morandi & Wassabi finally realised their threat and boycotted the final in protest of Dracula, my love not being reinstated.
With one more strong favourite out of the way, things became much easier for Locomondo who were among the favourites themselves from the beginning anyway.
“We go with the message of love, peace and tolerance from God” declared Kamara, member of Locomondo, immediately after the results.
But not everybody was pleased with the winner. Specifically, in the show “Eurovision -Pro & contra”, broadcasted by the Romanian national television, many doubted the group’s talent and voice capacities, implying that they are not able to sing live, especially to a show as big as Eurovision Song Contest.
Mihai Georgescu , leader of the group Bere gratis and member of the jury declared that Locomondo is a “lucky winner” and wouldn’t have made it if the competition was one of a different kind.

Meet the band

Bogdan Marian Taşcău aka Dl. Problema (Mr Problem, a nickname he got from a song of his former boy band MB & C, is the composer of Liubi, Liubi, I Love You and sings the Spanish verse. He entered the music industry eleven years ago but his first musical project was in 1995 with MB & C. Originally, he was a music band manager and composer. He is currently dealing with the marketing and management of many popular groups such as Akcent, Blondy and Alb negru.

Kamara Ghedi sings the French verse. He was born in Romania to a Romanian mother (a member of the Filotti family, the grandaughter of famous actress Maria Filotti) and a French Guinean father. After his father’s death the family moved to Guinea where they stayed until he was 22 years old. In the year 1997 he returned to Romania to study journalism at the Faculty of Cluj. At this time he was between football and university until he won a scholarship and went to Bucharest where he met his wife. While being a player at the football team he met Andrei Stefanescu and they formed their band called Alb negru (Black and white).

Andrei Ştefănescu sings the Romanian verse. He is the other half of the group “Alb negru”. He met Kamara while playing together to a soccer team and becoming friends they created this band. The group enjoyed great success winning many festivals all over Romania. His fiancée, Anca, is a member of a popular Romanian group called Asia. Together they released their first single Impreuna (Together) which is included to Alb negru’s third album Hello.

Ciro de Luca sings the Italian verse. He was born in Napoli, Italy, and he is 35 years old. He has been singing for 22 years but his career really started at cabarets and comedy theaters. In 1991 he formed his first group called Gipsy fint but after 3 years he went solo. Ciro has composed a lot of melodies for various artists including Nino d’ Angelo. In 1999 he came back to Romania where he lives till today. In 2003 he won the Festival of Napoli and the Latin-American festival in Rome.

Vlad Creţu sings the English verse. He was born in Bucharest and he is 25 years old. He studied at the George Enescu Music High School where he specialized in the guitar. In 1999 he created the group Supermarket who released 2 albums. Since 2005 he is a member of the group Hara, one of the most popular groups in Romania.

Valeriu Răileanu sings the Russian verse. He originally attended a Music High School but gave it up to follow a different career. This happened 20 years ago. He joined Locomondo by pure chance. Kamara asked him to help them translate the song in Russian. He accepted, but afterwards everybody asked him to stay and sing along since no one else could sing in Russian. So he stayed. “It’s a childhood dream come true” declared Valeriu.

Lyrics

Everywhere around the world "I love you" it means the same
Everyday and every night only you can touch my flame
So take my heart, take my soul, everything of me
Everywhere you go my baby, even Italy.

Non devi essere speciale, "io ti amo" e sempre uguale
Lo puoi dire come voi, sei da solo con i tuoi
E qui non esistono frontiere, l’amor non ha barriere
In citta o in campagna, lo stesso in Spagna.

Por todo el mundo "te quiero" es lo mismo,
Cada dia y cada noche solo tu me das amor (ariba),
Aqui es mi sol te lo doy todo lo que soy
Si te vas, te buscare en Russia se.

Gde to tam, kto to tam
Menia liubi nezabud
Skazi da liubimaja
Liubi liubi ti menia
Gde bi ti nenahadilas
Gde nepobivala
Budu zdat liubimaja
Sevodnia i vsegda

Mademoiselle, partout au monde,un je t'aime c'est la même chose,
Chaque jour, chaque nuit, toi, tu reste ma seule rose,
Par mon coeur, par mon âme, ma vie, ma chérie,
appelle moi, où que tu sois même en Roumanie

Undeva cineva te iubeste, nu uita
Spune da, iubita mea, stii cum e cu dragostea
Oriunde ai fi, oricat ai sta, te voi astepta
Inima imi spune ea, aici e casa ta.

(bis)
Everywhere around the world, "io ti amo" e sempre uguale
Cada dia y cada noche, liubi, liubi ti minia
Par mon coeur, par mon âme, ma vie, ma chérie,
Inima imi spune ea, aici e casa ta.

Locomondo will be competing directly in the Eurovision Song Contest final in Helsinki due to Mihai Traistariu’s fourth place in Athens.

A very special thanks to Aris Kalimeris for the submission of the information.