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Meet Paula & Ovi from Romania

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This year, Romania’s song for EUROVISION SONG CONTEST is called „Playing with fire”. It was composed by Ovi Jacobsen (Cernauteanu), sang by Paula Seling & Ovi and it was produced in Norway by Simen M. Eriksrud. Here are some info about the singers and about the song:

Paula Seling is a romanian singer and composer. She was born on Christmas Day (25 December
1978) in Baia Mare . She studied piano since she was 6. At the age of 10 she started singing in the
school choir and found it to be very enjoyable. It wasn’t long before she was a vocalist. That was the start of her interest in music. Between 11 to 15 years old she learned a lot about music by participating in national and county level piano contests, festivals and choral music contests. It was her success in these performances that helped her find confidence. She learned a lot during this time and gained some experience.

From 1994 to 1996 she joined a high school band as their keyboard player and played at many different festivals for children and young people. During this time they won some awards, such as:
→ Best players award At the Crystal Star Contest in Botosani, Romania
→ The Golden Teddy Bear award in Baia Mare, Romania
→ First place at the Harmony Festival in Bucharest, Romania

In 1996 she won her first trophy as a solo artist in a national singing contest. Since then, the list of trophies and awards got bigger and bigger:

• EUROVISION National selection in 2010
• “Best pop album” at Romanian National Radio Awards in 2010
• First prise at “Mamaia Festival 2009”
• “The Golden Stag” trophy in 2002
• ”Best Female Voice” at Romanian Musical Industry Awards 2002
• ”Best artist in a Video” at MTV Romanian Music Awards 2002
• ”Woman of the year” by “Avantaje” Magazine in 1998
• The Mamaia Trophy in 1997
• Numerous awards in music festivals from Turkey, Malta, Skopje.

In 1998 she recorded her first album, ”ONLY LOVE” in Germany . Up until now she has released twelve albums, including three Christmas albums and a compilation. Her latest one, called “CULEG VISE (I PICK UP DREAMS)” / “BELIEVE”, released last year, is a double album with 17 songs, all composed, produced and arranged by her.

2002 brought her a very interesting experience. As she sais: „ I was a “fairy tale” character. It was A story about making a music hit somewhere, in the world. Tony Hawks, producer, composer, director and writer proposed himself to cast a documentary movie on the Discovery channel, a movie that reveals to the audience the recipe for the success of a song. „He picked me as a study subject in Romania, we recorded a song, his composition, in his studio from London and then we started promoting it. The whole story took off and we performed it on Gloria Hunniford's show on Channel 5 in London. Then we went to club Kashmir, famous for many British star debuts, where together with my band I performed and the show was broadcast on the internet.”

In 2005 she launches her own recording studio and record label, called "Unicorn Records", along with her husbant.

She sang in duets with Al Bano, Anita Doth (from 2 UNLIMITED), Tony Hawks and she performed opening acts for Joan Baez (27 June 1997), Chick Corea (9 November 1998), Ricky Martin (2003)
,Michael Bolton (7 July 2007), Beyonce (26 October 2007).

Ovi is a romanian/ norwegian singer and composer, born in the north of Romania, in a town named
Botosani. Despite his 34 years Ovi is now entering for the most important part of his musical life.
Early 2009 he released his first solo album "This Gig Almost Got Me Killed", a solid result of hard work with help and influence from experienced professionals from the music business.

Ovi's talent was notices while he was just a kid. In his early years he listened actively to music and he actually discovered his voice "by accident" while imitating everybody from "We Are The World". When he was only 14 years old Ovi earned his first prize in a national singing contest called "Florile Dragostei" and that was probably all he needed to be sure that it was a musician “he was meant to be”. The following years, he spent playing in different bands. First with his father and then with his former music teacher. In the early 90's Ovi was old enough and able to record a demo with a friend, and together they went out to chase the big dream - first stop was Germany. Unfortunately the tour didn't give them the dream start they were hoping for as they illegally tried to cross the border and got caught. Luckily they only had to spend a few hours in prison.

When Ovi was 18 years old he travelled with this band to Tokyo, Japan, where they stayed for a year. Ovi describes this as his "music school" period. They practiced every day, sat the standards high while playing at The Hiltons and not least; Ovi got the opportunity to see his biggest heroes play live.

After a year in Japan the band dismantled and Ovi got a job offer to play in Norway. He made new friends, found love and have since that become a real Norwegian. Over the years there has also been a number of small musical projects abroad. For instance he made the "Nanu Disco" project in Greenland together with the Danish producer Morten "Starman" Stjernholm. This was Greenland's first dance album and became a huge successes – in Greenland.

Despite all experiences and adventures, Ovi describes the past years as the most important period of his life. He has competed in the Norwegian Eurovision Song Contest in 2006 with the song "The Better Side Of Me", ironically represented Norway in the Romanian "Golden Stag" in 2005. Springtime of 2006 he and his management in Mentor Promotion AS went to Los Angeles with the intention to record the ultimate album. Ovi says it was very educational to work with the famos American producer Preston Glass, he was the producer for Whitney Houston and Natalie Cole.
However there was so much misunderstandings and broken promisses with the record company that
Ovi and his manager decided to cancel the project in Hollywood.

Back in Norway Ovi got back in touch with Simen M. Eriksrud, the producer of Ovi's entry to the Norwegian finals for Eurovision Song Contest and also the producer behind national Norwegian entry "Hold On, Be Strong" sung by Maria Haukaas Storeng two years later. Ovi's debut album was
recorded in Livingroom Studios in Oslo with good help from Simen and Espen Berg. He did
also receive good help from Simen's girlfriend, D'Sounds songwriter and lead vocalist Simone, who wrote the song "Seven Seconds" for his debut album.

In september 2009 Ovi attends again The Golden Stag Festival in Brasov, Romania and this time he wins two prizes – The Golden Stag Bronze Trophy and The Popularity Prize. It`s here at this festival he gets to meet Paula Seling and they initiate a dialog on commencing a project toghter. The rest is Eurovision history!

On this album a lot of the inspiration is gained from the 70's big piano and keyboard based singer- songwriters such as Billy Joel, Elton John and Stevie Wonder. Without a deadline or set rules the album has developed naturally - a process that has taken two years. For Ovi "This Gig Almost Got Me Killed" is the start of something new, and finally he's ready to release his work.

The story of the song “Playing with fire” told by Paula :

„The idea of us singing together came the first time we met. It was last year, we were on the stage of the Golden Stag festival . I was a member of the jury and I told him how much I admired his performance on stage, his way of singing, and especially, that much like me, he loves the piano.

He came with the ideea of us making a song together, both singing and playing piano, and soon came up with a draft. This developed into a joyful, sensual and powerful song, a "game" between two lovers who provoked each other. It is modern, simple, "in your face", easy to remember from the first time you listen to it and it makes you dance and dream.. The production was done by Simen M. Eriksrud from Norway who made us record dozens and dozens of retakes during production. Every time I called Ovi, he was in the studio, re- recording, even if his part already sounded perfect. When my turn came, I had to do the same, in my studio in Romania, until Simen got the result that he wanted. Even then he expressed his frustration that I could not go to Norway to record my part in his studio. In the end all turn out great and we ended up with a winner song!”