Despite what happened last year to Romania, the country is back, and still full with energy for Eurovision. This past week, TVR has aired every single day, a 1 hour special, presenting all the 72 participants, that took part in the auditions.
However, even during the auditions, we couldn’t avoid some drama. Lora, one of the participants at the auditions, decided to withdraw her song “I Know” without a reason. However, speculations has it, that it was due to what Lora was told during the auditions, that her song was not strong enough for Eurovision, and so in protest, she withdrew herself from the competition.
In the end, only 15 songs would make it to the semi-final, and since there was another 71 songs to select from, then it didn’t really cause any major problems.
The jury who would be in charge of selecting the 15 semi-finalists, consisting of all former Romanian Eurovision veterans. Paula Seling, & Ovi Jacobsen was among the jury, they represented Romania in 2010 & 2014, and also Luminita Anghel was in the jury as well, who represented Romania, in Kyiv, in 2005. The 2 remaining juries, were Andrei Tudor & Adrian Romcescu, who both has written former Eurovision entries for Romania.
The hosts of the show, of the announcement of the 15 semi-finalists, we had Ioana Voicu & Dan Helciug, and of course a lot of Eurovision related guests as well. The show also featured former Romanian representatives such as Elena Gheorghe(2009), Luminita Anghel(2005), Monica Anghel & Marcel Pavel(2002), Cezar(2013), Dan Bittman(1994) and of course Paula Seling & Ovi(2010 & 2014).
The 15 lucky names to be selected, to take part in the Selectia Nationala, were announced in the following order:
- Elize & No Stress – Fără Bariere
- Cristina Vasiu – Set The Skies On Fire
- Tudor Turcu – Limitless
- Ramona Nerra – Save Me
- Ana-Maria Mirică – Spune-mi Tu
- Instinct – Petale
- D-lema – Adventure
- Ilinca ft. Alex Florea – Yodel It
- Tavi Colen & Emma – We Own The Night
- Zanga – Două Sticle
- Maxim – Adu-ți Aminte
- Eduard Santha – Wild Child
- MIHAI – I Won’t Surrender
- Alexandra Crăescu – Hope
- Xandra – Walk On By
These 15 semi-finalists, will now move on to the live shows, known as Selectia Nationala, and the semi-final will take place on the 26th of February 2017. From here, only 10 acts will qualify to the final. The jury will be 100% in charge in the semi-final, while the grand final, which takes place a week later, will be decided by a 100% televote.
