"Yodel It!" | ||||
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Single by Ilinca and Alex Florea | ||||
Released | 30 January 2017 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:56 | |||
Label | Cat | |||
Songwriter(s) | Alexandra Niculae | |||
Producer(s) | Mihai Alexandru | |||
Ilinca singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Eurovision Song Contest 2017 entry | ||||
Country | ||||
Artist(s) | Ilinca & Alex Florea | |||
Language | English | |||
Composer(s) | Mihai Alexandru | |||
Lyricist(s) | Alexandra Niculae | |||
Finals performance | ||||
Semi-final result | 6th | |||
Semi-final points | 174 | |||
Final result | 7th | |||
Final points | 282 | |||
Entry chronology | ||||
◄ "Moment of Silence" (2016) | ||||
"Goodbye" (2018) ► |
"Yodel It!" is a song recorded by Romanian singers Ilinca and Alex Florea, released on 30 January 2017 by Cat Music. The track was written by Alexandra Niculae and produced by Mihai Alexandru for the Swiss band Timebelle who rejected it. It was then given to Ilinca to record. Florea was chosen as a featured artist as both Alexandru and Ilinca felt her version was incomplete. "Yodel It!" is a mixture of rock, pop and hip hop music, including Ilinca yodeling during the chorus and Florea's rap vocals. The track's optimistic lyrical message was compared to that of Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" (2014).
"Yodel It!" represented Romania in the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv, Ukraine after winning the pre-selection show Selecția Națională. The country reached seventh place in a field of 26, scoring a total of 282 points. During their show, Ilinca and Florea were accompanied by a variety of colorful imagery displayed in the background. The song received mixed reviews from music critics. While it was praised for its catchiness and appeal, the yodeling sequences were criticized as being atypical of Romanian culture. Some parts of the recording were also likened to the band The Script and will.i.am's song "Hall of Fame" (2012). "Yodel It!" won in the Song of the Year category at the 2017 Radar de Media Awards in Romania.
In order to promote and support "Yodel It!", the singers made various appearances to perform the song, including at the 2017 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships, as well as in London, Madrid, Amsterdam and Tel Aviv. An accompanying music video was filmed by Dan Petcan in Cluj-Napoca and was uploaded to YouTube on 21 April 2017. It shows Ilinca and Florea singing to each other standing atop huge computer-generated towers. Commercially, "Yodel It!" reached the top 100 of various charts after Eurovision, including those in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain.