ESC SongScan - Choke Me, Alexandra - Romania 2026

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:01]Eurovision song scan.

[00:00:11]The Romanian entry for Eurovision 2026 was written by the singer herself, Alexandra Căpitănescu, who won The Voice Romania in 2023, and Elvis Claudiu Ziditra, a songwriter and producer, who took part in The Voice Romania in 2015, Călin Alexandru Grejdean, a mixing and mastering engineer from Bucharest, and Ștefan Condrea, a beatboxer famous in Romania through X Factor participations.

[00:00:42]This song is published by Universal. She won the one-night national final by winning the jury.

[00:00:50]Alexandra >> [cheering] >> Căpitănescu And the jury vote was everything she needed because there was no public vote.

[00:01:03]This track is a mad mix of rock music and popera with some, let's say, questionable lyrics. More on that in the chapter lyrics.

[00:01:13]It stands in E flat minor.

[00:01:16]It uses a 4/4 time signature. And the tempo is rather mid with around 125 beats per minute.

[00:01:26]It is a rock song, so we have bass and drums and guitar and a keyboard for some sound effects.

[00:01:38]The main motive goes like this.

[00:01:48]>> [music] >> This part of the melody is structurally very much like a vocal warm-up exercise for professional sopranos. The vocal range is this.

[00:02:17]Let's have a look at the harmonies, the chords. They go like this.

[00:02:26]>> [music] [music] [music] >> It starts with a short instrumental and a short first verse with a minimal instrumentation. The first spoken pre-chorus, you are here to obey me, leads into the first chorus with full band instrumentation. After this, there is a second instance of the instrumental from the beginning, and then a second short verse that builds into the second pre-chorus, followed by the second chorus. There, we shortly stop for a belting and screaming moment >> [music] >> before ending the song with a third chorus.

[00:03:38]And now, the lyrics.

[00:03:41]>> [music] >> You can find full translations of the songs at eurovisionworld.com. So, feel free to look it up there if you want more details. Within the song scan, we will only give you some statistical numbers for the Eurovision notes regarding the lyrics language and the repetition percentages. And here we go.

[00:04:13]Okay, so the lyrics. The title was obviously raising eyebrows because choking or strangulation is a high-risk activity and there is no safe level to do it.

[00:04:24]Although it often gets painted as a fun option for intimate encounters, there have been several cases where it went deadly wrong, and the science is also very clear that every level of choking causes measurable brain damage and elevates risks for strokes even in young people. We will link some of the articles and studies in the description.

[00:04:44]So, people criticized the song for glorifying choking in a show for family audiences. There is even a petition to ban the song. There is also a statement by Alexandra explaining that the lyrics are not meant literally and that she doesn't mean choking at all when she sings choking. Supposedly, it is all about confronting inner self-doubt that feels suffocating and not at all about strangulation between people. While it is possible that she means it that way, there is no way for the casual audience to know that. People are just going to tune in and hear what she is singing about. So, frankly, we wonder why no broadcaster filed an official complaint about this with the EBU. Last year's entry from Malta was forced to change their lyrics that literally meant singing because it sounded offending to English-speaking people and the BBC objected.

[00:05:39]Yet in this case, where the literal lyrics do mean something disturbing, nothing happens. Although it definitely sounds as if she was inciting to do something highly dangerous that might even be a crime in some cases, like in the UK, where non-fatal strangulation, even if there was consent, is a serious crime and it is illegal to possess or publish depictions of strangulation or suffocation in adult content. Therefore, the BBC would have had good reason to object once again, but for some reason they didn't. And that while it would have been so easy to switch the lyrics to show me or choose me or ch-ch-ch-chase me or even stroke me if you really needed to be ambiguous.

[00:06:26]But sure, she wrote a statement no child or grandparent is going to read before the show, so >> [music] >> the Romanian delegation promised to make a staging that underlines the non-literal meaning, and we are curious to see how they want to do that. Of course, first and foremost, they should stop her grabbing her own throat symbolically. To avoid further unwanted associations, they should probably also get rid of black leather clothing and the cages. That would be a good start.

[00:07:03]So, we'll see what they come up with to make it clear by staging that the song is not at all about what the lyrics and the title are about. Yeah, that was sarcasm. It's probably impossible to communicate that idea to casual viewers.

[00:07:22]Let's have a look at the facts for this song in an overview.

[00:07:27]>> [music] [music] >> So, it's pretty clear we don't want you to choke anyone. What we do want you to do is subscribe to our channel. Also, we'd love to hear your thoughts about the song down below in the comments. And of course, like the video if you enjoyed it. Goodbye.