Miracle (Paula Seling and Ovi song)

"Miracle" was written by Beyond51, Frida Amundsen, Ovi and Philip Halloun, while production was solely handled by Beyond51.[4] Ovi met with Halloun at a songwriting camp in Sweden in June 2013, where they penned the song's lyrics in a few hours.[5][6] "Miracle" was subsequently produced in the fall of the same year.[5] During a press conference, Ovi revealed that the song was intentionally "generic", as he wanted to reach a wider audience with simple and memorable lyrics.[7] "Miracle" has been described as a love-themed dance and eurodance recording,[2][3][8] featuring techno beats and a piano in its instrumentation.[3] During the song's bridge, Seling holds a note for 18 seconds.[7][9] Reviewers compared "Miracle" to the music of Avicii, Swedish House Mafia, Benny Benassi and Cascada.[3][9]

It was digitally released on 28 February 2014 in various countries,[10] preceded by a teaser and a leak of a demo version in December 2013 and January 2014, respectively.[9][11] A CD single of the song was also made available in Romania and Norway in 2014 by the Romanian Television (TVR) and DaWorks, respectively, both featuring "Playing with Fire" (2010) alongside other versions of the original track. Radu Bucura shot the accompanying cover artworks.[4][12] The stems of the song were also released through the iTunes Store under the title "Miracle (Make Your Own Remix Kit)".[13]

Upon its release, "Miracle" was met with mixed reactions from music critics. Reviewers from Wiwibloggs were generally positive, praising the duo's vocal delivery and the song's composition and dance nature, while criticizing it as being "generic" and "cheap", and having low-quality lyrics. Overall, the reviewers on the website gave the song 8.06 out of 10 points.[3] In a 2016 Wiwibloggs poll called "What is your favourite Eurovision song from Romania?", "Miracle" finished in fifth place with over 400 votes.[14] Ines Hristea of Formula AS thought that "Miracle" had a "melodic" and "elegant" composition.[15] The Corkman praised the track's beginning, but criticized it for "becom[ing] a bit of a production mess" eventually.[2] In a negative review, Irving Wolther from Eurovision.de criticized "Miracle" as unoriginal,[16] while Felix Bayer of Der Spiegel awarded it 3 out of 10 points.[17] Commercially, the song reached the lower ends of the charts in Belgium's Flanders region, Ireland and the United Kingdom.[18][19][20]

Prior to the release of an accompanying music video for "Miracle", a lyric as well as a live performance video were premiered in January and February 2014, respectively,[21][22] along with a clip for an acoustic version of the track in March 2014.[23] The latter featured Seling and Ovi sitting at a double piano previously presented during their performance at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest.[24] The official music video was subsequently uploaded onto Eurovision's YouTube channel on 28 April 2014.[25] It was filmed at the MediaPro Studios in Buftea, Romania by Alex Ceaușu, while make-up and hair styling were done by Romelia Pelin and Marius Costea, respectively.[5][26] A choreography was created by Judith State and Mircea Andrei Ghinea, and clothes were provided by Amir Dobos and Magda Mohamed. The shooting was completed in the span of one day, while post-production took several days afterwards.[5] The government of Romania provided Seling and Ovi's team with over 259,000 lei, which part of was used for the making of the video.[26] Five tons of grass have been used for the clip, as well as artificial wind and rain.[5]

The music video starts with Ovi and Seling successively playing a piano in a "stark, derelict" and flooded cabin provided with old-fashioned furniture.[1][5][27] Two dancers are also shown performing choreography in the same place while it starts to rain. As the clip transitions, the cabin "comes to life in the rain", becoming a "mini-paradise" with a tree and grass on the piano. Both the singers and dancers are involved in the same activities as in the previous set.[1][25] Seling elaborated on the video: "It speaks of the miracle of life, coming from another miracle, of love. Nature results in the empty room from another miracle, water, the source of life."[26] Several observers noticed similarities between the clip and the visual for Ruth Lorenzo's "Dancing in the Rain", which represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014.[27] Bogdan Honciuc of Wiwibloggs speculated that the tree represented the forbidden tree,[1] while an editor of Urban.ro praised the video as "colored", "vernal" and "in tone with the song's message".[28]

For further promotion, Seling and Ovi performed "Miracle" on multiple occasions. They appeared on Romanian talk show 'Neatza cu Răzvan și Dani on 20 February 2014,[29] and also performed the song in a folk rendition on O dată-n viață. Wearing traditional Romanian clothing, they were accompanied by Moldovan orchestra group Lăutarii.[24] After conducting a tour in multiple European countries, including the United Kingdom, during March and April 2014,[30][31] the duo sang "Miracle" at a match between FC Steaua București and ASC Oțelul Galați on 20 May 2014.[32] Following the song's promotion phase, it was notably performed during Selecția Națională 2017 alongside "Playing with Fire".[33]