Romania participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with "D.G.T. (Off and On)" performed by Theodor Andrei. The Romanian broadcaster Televiziunea Română (TVR) organised the national final Selecția Națională 2023 in order to select the Romanian entry for the 2023 contest. Twelve entries were selected to compete in the national final on 11 February 2023 where "D.G.T. (Off and On)" performed by Theodor Andrei was selected as the winner entirely by a public vote.
Romania was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 11 May 2023. Performing during the show in position 3, "D.G.T. (Off and On)" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Romania placed 15th out of the 16 participating countries in the semi-final and failed to score any points. This marked the first time the nation received nul points since they debuted in the contest in 1994.
Prior to the 2023 contest, Romania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 22 times since its first entry in 1994. To this point, its highest placing in the contest has been third place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 2005 with the song "Let Me Try" performed by Luminița Anghel and Sistem, and in 2010 with the song "Playing with Fire" performed by Paula Seling and Ovi. To this point, Romania has qualified to the final 14 out of 17 times since the introduction of semi-finals to the format of the contest in 2004. In 2022, "Llámame" by WRS qualified to the final and placed 18th.[1]
The Romanian national broadcaster, Televiziunea Română (TVR), broadcasts the event within Romania and organizes the selection process for the nation's entry. TVR has consistently selected the Romanian Eurovision entry through national finals that feature a competition among several artists and songs, except in 2021 when the Romanian entry was internally selected. Despite threatening a possible withdrawal in response to the nation's suspended jury votes in the 2022 contest,[2] the broadcaster confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest on 26 August 2022 after dropping all objections towards the EBU.[3][4] TVR had set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Romania, a procedure which the broadcaster opted for once again to select their 2023 entry.[5][6]
Before Eurovision
Selecția Națională2023
Selecția Națională 2023 was the national final organised by TVR in order to select Romania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. The competition took place at the TVR studios in Bucharest and was hosted by Laurențiu Niculescu and Ilinca, who represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017.[7][8] The producer of the competition was Mihai Predescu, who was also appointed as the head of the Romanian delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest.[9] The show was televised on TVR1, TVRi as well as online via the broadcaster's streaming service TVR+ and YouTube.[10]
Competing entries
TVR opened a submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries between 14 November 2022 and 11 December 2022. Composers were able to submit songs with or without a performer and should this be the case, the performers would be chosen by TVR in consultation with their composers.[11] The broadcaster received 85 submissions after the submission deadline passed.[12] An expert committee consisting of Sebastian Ferenț (Untold and Neversea), Laura Coroianu (Emagic), Bogdan Strătulă (Urban Sunsets Radio), John Varbiu (Summer Well), Alin Vaida (Jazz in the Park), Mihai Predescu (Head of the Romanian delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest) and Remus Achim (project director) reviewed the received submissions between 14 and 16 December 2022.[13][14] Each juror on the committee rated each song between 1 (lowest) and 10 (highest) based on criteria such as the melodic harmony, structure and lyrics of the song, the orchestral arrangement, originality and stylistic diversity of the composition, sound and voice quality as well as the overall interpretative, visual and artistic quality.[8] After the combination of the jury votes, the top twelve entries that scored the highest were selected for the national final.[15] The competing entries were announced on 17 December 2022.[16][17] Among the selected competing artists was Andrada Popa, who represented Romania in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 alongside Mădălina Lefter. Live performances of the competing entries were filmed at the TVR Studio 3 in Bucharest and released online via YouTube on 1 February 2023.[18]
Artist
Song
Songwriter(s)
Adriana Moraru
"Faralaes"
Oana Adriana Moraru
Aledaida
"Bla Bla Bla"
Liam Erixon, Emilija Jokubaitytė, Ellis Sportel, Andrei Mihai
Amia
"Puppet"
Erin Dăneț, Cătălina Ioana Oțeleanu, Alexia Maria Troacă
Theodor Andrei, Mikail Jahed, Luca De Mezzo, Luca Udățeanu
Final
The final took place on 11 February 2023. Twelve songs competed and the winner, "D.G.T. (Off and On)" performed by Theodor Andrei, was selected exclusively by public voting through televote and online voting.[19][20] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval acts featured performances by the show host Ilinca with her band Gadjo Dilo, 2022 Romanian Eurovision entrant Wrs, Ana Maria Mărgean and Darius Mabda.[21]
The 2023 edition of Selecția Națională was met with negative reception from viewers and Romanian artists alike.[23] According to newsin.ro, "several journalists drew attention to the bad organization of the national final, the embarrassing performance of the presenters, with countless stutters and inaccurate information".[24] Artists such as Mihai Trăistariu, who represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, Florin Ristei and Corina Chiriac criticised the hosting of the selection, with Ristei stating that he was "curious when TVR would realize that what is happening is pathetic and that this contest has zero credibility in our country because of them" and Trăistariu revealing that the audience at the TVR studios had been left befuddled during the voting window as no voting numbers were shown in the venue, leading many audience members not to cast a vote.[25][26]
Promotion
Theodor Andrei made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "D.G.T. (Off and On)" as the Romanian Eurovision entry. On 4 March, Theodor Andrei performed "D.G.T. (Off and On)" during the Moldovan Eurovision national final.[27] On 15 April, Andrei performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Hila Noorzai.[28] On 16 April, Andrei performed the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Here at Outernet venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell.[29]
At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Romania has been placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 11 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[30]
Once all the competing songs for the 2023 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Romania was set to perform in position 3, following the entry from Armenia and before the entry from Estonia.[31]
All three shows were broadcast in Romania on TVR1 and TVRi with commentary by Bogdan Stănescu and Kyrie Mendel.[32] The Romanian spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Romanian jury during the final, was Eda Marcus.
Semi-final
Theodor Andrei during a rehearsal before the second semi-final
Theodor Andrei took part in technical rehearsals on 1 and 4 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 10 and 11 May. This included the jury show on 10 May where the professional back-up juries of each country watched and voted in a result used if any issues with public televoting occurred.[33]
The Romanian performance featured Theodor Andrei dressed in a pale pink suit jacket and shorts with pink SpongeBob socks.[34] The performance began with Andrei playing the acoustic guitar on a stool with the LED screens displaying Andrei's face throughout the song.[35][36] Towards the end, Andrei was joined on stage by dancer Diana Colea.[37] At the end of the show, Romania was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed Romania placed fifteenth in the semi-final, failing to score any points.[38] The nation initially tied with San Marino as both countries finished with zero points, however, due to a tiebreaker rule that favours the song performed earliest in the running order, Romania placed fifteenth, while San Marino, which performed in position 12 during the semi-final, placed sixteenth. This was the first time Romania received nul points since they debuted in the contest in 1994.
Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting in the final vote, while the semi-final vote was based entirely on the vote of the public.[39] Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, each member of a national jury may only take part in the panel once every three years, and no jury was permitted to discuss of their vote with other members or be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member in an anonymised form as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.[40]
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Romania and awarded by Romania in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:
Points awarded to Romania
In the semi-final, Romania did not receive any points in the televote. The best place was 12th in the Austrian televote. [41]
After Eurovision, Theodor himself spoke about the mistreatment that he faced working with TVR, such as rejecting all the ideas he had for staging for his performance in Liverpool and imposing a slower revamp to his song, which he did not feel comfortable performing. [43][44]
After failing to qualify for the final in four out of its latest five participations, Romania was provisionally announced as withdrawing from the 2024 contest.[45][46] The withdrawal was subsequently confirmed on 25 January 2024.[47][48]
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