Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest
| Romania | |
|---|---|
| |
| Participating broadcaster | TVR |
| Participation summary | |
| Appearances | 16 |
| First appearance | 1994 |
| Highest placement | 3rd: 2005, 2010 |
| External links | |
| TVR page | |
Romania has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 16 times, debuting in the 1994 contest. The country's best result in the contest is two third place finishes, in 2005 with Luminița Anghel & Sistem and in 2010 with Paula Seling & Ovi.
Romania, along with Greece, Azerbaijan, Russia and Ukraine, has never missed a final since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004.
History of Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest
1993–1998
Romania originally had chosen Dida Drăgan for the Eurovision Song Contest 1993, but after she failed to qualify from the qualifying round, Romania had to wait a year, before they could debut in the contest.
In 1994 Romania debuted in Ireland by sending Dan Bittman as the country's first contestant with the song "Dincolo de nori", by failing to receive a high place in the final, Romania was not allowed to participate in 1995, and had to wait until 1996.[1]
In 1996 Romania selected Monica Anghel and Sincron for the contest in Oslo, Norway, but Romania failed to qualify from the pre-qualifying round, so the country was eliminated and because of the low results in the previous years, Romania did not enter for the 1997 contest.
In 1998 Romania made a comeback to the contest after missing 4 years of the contest, the country was represented by Mălina Olinescu with the song "Eu cred", but the low place back then resulted that Romania could not come back to the contest before in 2000.[2]
2000
In 2000 Romania again returned to the contest held in Stockholm, Sweden, when the band Taxi got the chance for representing the country, with the first song to be on English, also Taxi did not succeed to get a high place, so yet again Romania would had to miss the 2001 contest held in Denmark. Even though, they managed to bring the first twelve points for Romania, given by Macedonia.[3]
2002
After missing the 2001 contest, Romania returned to the contest held in Tallinn, Estonia in 2002, Romania finally received their first top 10 place since their debut, Romania was back then represented by Monica Anghel and Marcel Pavel with the song "Tell Me Why", Romania ended on 9th place with 71 points of which 12 points from two countries: Macedonia and Russia.[4]
2003
The success from last year continued, Romania received another top 10 place in Riga, Nicola and her song "Don't Break My Heart" just got into the top 10 by receiving a total of 73 points, which meant that Romania would compete in the final in 2004, even without needing to compete in the semi-final. Once again, they received twelve points from Russia.[5]
2004
In 2004, Romania sent Sanda to compete for the country with the song "I Admit", Romania did not managed to receive their third top 10 in a row, after a disappointing 18th place with only 18 points, which meant this time, that Romania would have to compete in the semi-final of 2005 in order to qualify to the final. Yet they received ten points from Spain.[6]
2005
In 2005, Romania sent Luminița Anghel and Sistem in order to help the country back to the final, and as hoped they succeeded, but not only that, Romania also got their first top 3 place in the contest by ending on third place with a total of 158 points, only beaten by Greece and Malta in the final, but at the semi-final, 2 days earlier, Romania ended on first place, with a total amount of 235 points, which meant they won the semi-final with a margin of 28 points in front of neighbouring country Moldova. Romania was on 1st place in the semi-final with 235 points, more points than those received by winning Greece in the final. In the semi-final, Romania received twelve points from Moldova, Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Hungary, of which Spain and Israel also gave their maximum to them in the final, accompanied by Portugal.Up to date, Romania's best result is third. [7][8]
2006
Romania continued the good streak by sending Mihai Trăistariu and his Italian named song "Tornerò" to Athens, Romania was also one of the hot favourites to take the gold, and being the next host country, but failed after being beaten by countries as Finland, Russia and Bosnia & Herzegovina in the final, which all of them had qualified to the final from the semi-final 2 days earlier, which meant that Romania ended on 4th place with 172 points, which is the highest amount of points Romania has ever received in a final, the fourth place also meant that Romania was qualified for the final in Helsinki. They got twelve points from Moldova and Spain solely, but received at least one point from every voting nation that year but the Netherlands and Monaco.[9]
2007
In 2007, Romania selected Todomondo for the Eurovision Song Contest held in Helsinki, their song "Liubi, Liubi, I Love You" was sung on six different languages, English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French and Romanian, they received the highest place outside the top 10 for the country, a 13th place with 84 points. Yet they received a couplet of twelve points (from Moldova and Spain) among others.[10]
2008
After the disappointing result in 2007, Romania hoped to get another comeback, and decided to sent Nico and Vlad and the Italian and Romanian song "Pe-o margine de lume" to Belgrade, but failed to help Romania into the top 10, even though they qualified from the semi-final, it all ended by a 20th place with 45 points. The song wasn't a failure, as it won the Marcel Bezençon composer' award and it received twelve points from Moldova and Spain.[11][12]
2009
After two years of failing, Romania decided that Elena Gheorghe would have to go to the finals in Moscow, with a typical Romanian song "The Balkan Girls", which includes music style from the Balkans and Romania, but yet again Romania failed to get a high place in the final, the result ended in giving Romania a total of 40 points, and ending on 19th place. Gheorghe only took top points from Moldova, which awarded her 12 points. Spain, which usually gave Romania their twelve points only rewarded them with seven points.[13][14]
2010
After three years being outside the top 10 in the final, Romania made some few changes for their national selection, by skipping the semi-finals, it all ended by both the televoters and the juries agreeing that Paula Seling and Ovi, would be the best choice for the country in Oslo with the song "Playing with Fire". They managed to qualify for the final by ending on 4th place in the semi-final, but in the final they even got a better result ending on the third place which meant they had equalised Romania’s best result from 2005, with a total of 162 points, only 8 points away from second place, which was given to Turkey. They got the maximum twelve points from Moldova, 10 points from Spain, Portugal, Israel, Norway and Sweden and eight points from the United Kingdom, Denmark and Cyprus.[15][16]
2011
The Romanian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was held on New Year's Eve, where 13 songs competed to represent Romania in Germany, and was hosted by the previous Romanian contestants, Paula Seling & Ovi. During the National Selection, a special act was held after the midnight passed. Niamh Kavanagh, Chiara Siracusa, Paula Seling and Ovi sang together 'Happy New Year', song originally composed by ABBA. The winner was the band Hotel FM (Gabriel Băruţa (piano & voice - also the song's composer), David Bryan (main voice) and Alexandru Szűz (drums)) with the song "Change". Hotel FM managed to qualify to the final taking the 4th place in the second semifinal, their song was one of the most appreciated songs before final being even the 8th favorite song. However as the plans made at home are never matching the real situation from the "market", the British-style song "Change" took only the 17th place with no points from UK, David Bryan's home country. It is still one of Romania's best placings in history, receiving 77 points and getting top points four times. They got the maximum 12 points from Italy and Moldova, 10 points from Belgium and 8 points from Spain.[17][18]
2012
In 2012, the selection was won by Mandinga with their already smash hit "Zaleilah", the first time that the tele-voting favorite wins the contest. They managed to qualify for the final, maintaining Romania's shared record for not missing a single final, taking the third place in the semi-final, the best ranking since 2005 when Romania came first in the semi-final. They also received the maximum twelve points from three countries, Spain and Moldova, which constantly votes for Romania and also from Ireland, which gave their first ever twelve points to Romania that year. Even though considered a favorite, Romania didn't manage to enter the top-ten in the grand final, but placed better than in the previous year. They entered the first half of the ranking, placing twelfth. They received twelve points from Moldova, 10 points from Spain, 7 points from Greece and Italy, and so on. They finished with a total of 71 points, 6 points behind last year's Hotel FM.[19][20]
2013
TVR opened submission for the 2013 National Final on 14 January 2013.
This year for the first time, artists from all over Romania were able to submit their entries to local offices of TVR. A total of 148 songs were submitted by both Romanian composers and songwriters from the United Kingdom, Turkey, Israel, Sweden and France, who either entered songs on their own or in collaboration with Romanian composers or singers. During the pre-selection phase this was reduced to 32 by a panel of professional judges after live auditions around Romania. After the Semi-Finals this was reduced to 12 who competed in Romania's National Final on 9 March 2013. Also, Luminita Anghel, old contestant who participated for Romania in 2005 sent a song to the national selection.
The winner of Romania's national final was "It's My Life" by Cezar, who performed at the 2013 final in Malmö, Sweden. Romania placed 13th with a total of 65 points. Romania didn't receive a single 12 top points this year. Shockingly, Romania who normally receive good points from Italy, Spain and Israel, only gave Cezar 1 point from Italy, while Israel nor Spain didn't reward 1 single point in the final According to the split results, released by the EBU, Cezar came 1st with the televoters, in the second semi-final.
Contestants
Table key
- Winner
- Second place
- Third place
- Last place
- Automatically qualified to the final
- Did not qualify for the final
- Did not compete or was relegated
- NOTES:
- a. ^ Romania attempted to participate in 1993 when there was a pre-qualifying round for seven countries hoping to make their debut in the contest and in 1996 when there was an audio only pre-qualifier for all countries (excluding hosts Norway). Romania is one of only two countries (along with Hungary) to have unsuccessfully attempted to participate in both those years. The official Eurovision site does not count either year in Romania's list of appearances.
- b. If a country won the previous year, they did not have to compete in Semi Finals. In addition, back in the early 2005-2007 era, countries who done well did not have to compete in Semi Finals the following year. The top ten non-Big four along with the Big four countries automatically qualified, for example, if Germany and France placed inside the top 10, the 11th and 12th spots were advanced to next year's Grand Final along with everyone within the top 10.
Voting history
As of 2014, Romania's voting history is as follows:
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Marcel Bezençon Awards
Composer Award
| Year | Song | Composer(s) Lyrics (l) / Music (m) |
Performer | Final Result |
Points | Host city |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | "Pe-o margine de lume" | Andrei Tudor (m), Andreea Andrei (l) and Adina Şuteu (l) |
Nico & Vlad | 20th | 45 | Belgrade |
Commentators and spokespersons
 |
| Year(s) | Commentator | Dual Commentator | Spokesperson |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Gabriela Cristea | No Dual Commentator | Cristina Topescu |
| 1995 | No broadcast | Romania did not participate | |
| 1996 | |||
| 1997 | |||
| 1998 | Leonard Miron | Anca Țurcașiu | |
| 1999 | Romania did not participate | ||
| 2000 | Andreea Marin Bănică | ||
| 2001 | Andreea Marin Bănică | Romania did not participate | |
| 2002 | Andreea Demirgian | No Dual Commentator | Leonard Miron |
| 2003 | |||
| 2004 | Andreea Marin Bănică | ||
| 2005 | Berti Barbera | ||
| 2006 | Andreea Marin Bănică | ||
| 2007 | |||
| 2008 | Leonard Miron | Alina Sorescu | |
| 2009 | Ioana Isopescu | Alexandru Nagy | |
| 2010 | Leonard Miron | Gianina Corondan | Malvina Cservenschi |
| 2011 | Liana Stanciu | Bogdan Pavlică | |
| 2012 | Leonard Miron | Gianina Corondan | Paula Seling |
| 2013 | Liana Stanciu | No Dual Commentator | Sonia Argint-Ionescu |
| 2014 | Bogdan Stănescu |
Photogallery
-
Todomondo at Helsinki Eurovision Song Contest 2007 -
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Mandinga at Baku Eurovision Song Contest 2012 -
Cezar at Malmö Eurovision Song Contest 2013 -
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References
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 1994". Eurovision Song Contest 1994. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 1998". Eurovision Song Contest 1998. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2000". Eurovision Song Contest 2000. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2002". Eurovision Song Contest 2002. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2003". Eurovision Song Contest 2003. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2004". Eurovision Song Contest 2004. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2005 (Semifinal)". Eurovision Song Contest 2005. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2005 (Final)". Eurovision Song Contest 2005. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2006 (Final)". Eurovision Song Contest 2006. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2007 (Final)". Eurovision Song Contest 2007. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2008 (Semifinal 1)". Eurovision Song Contest 2008. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2008 (Final)". Eurovision Song Contest 2008. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2009 (Semifinal 1)". Eurovision Song Contest 2009. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2009 (Final)". Eurovision Song Contest 2009. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2010 (Semifinal 2)". Eurovision Song Contest 2010. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2010 (Final)". Eurovision Song Contest 2010. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2011 (Semifinal 2)". Eurovision Song Contest 2011. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2011 (Final)". Eurovision Song Contest 2011. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2012 (Semifinal 1)". Eurovision Song Contest 2012. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Romania at Eurovision 2012 (Final)". Eurovision Song Contest 2012. EBU. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
External links
- 'Selecţia Naţională Eurovision' website
- Points to and from Romania eurovisioncovers.co.uk
