Romania: 60 Semi-Finalists And Songs Announced

Without a doubt, this will be the most extravagant Romanian national final ever, and thankfully, you can deal with it, if you feel like it.

TVR, the Romanian national broadcaster, has announced the 60 semi-finalists that will take part in the 5 semi-finals, that will take place in 5 different cities in Romania, locations are still unknown.

A total of 72 singers took part in the audition round, and only 12 songs were cut from the list, so the odds were nearly on everyone’s side, so to those few that didn’t make the cut, we can only wonder what went wrong.

Anyway, among the 60 announced songs, we find quite a lot of interesting names, that are Eurovision related. (List goes in alphabetical order)

1. Alessandro Dănescu – “Breaking” (John Ballard, Jonathan Dahl, Robin Carlsson, Marcus Holmberg)
2. Alex Florea – “Nobody Told Me It Would Hurt” (Jonas Thander, Aidan O’Connor)
3. Alexandru Ungureanu – “Sail with Me” (Alexandru Ungureanu)
4. Alexia & Matei – “Walking on Water” (Mihai Alexandru, Alina Todasca-Dascalu)
5. Alice Jeckel – “Out of the Dark” (Cezar Dometi, Alice Jeckel)
6. Aurel Dincă – “Fire in the Sky” (Aurel Dincă, Victor Solomon)
7. Ayona – “The Story Goes On” (Ovidiu Anton)
8. Bernice Chițiul – “Too Busy for My Heart” (Florin Chițiul, Bernice Chițiul)
9. Carolina Gorun – “Reach Out for the Stars” (Jannis Kaffka, Peter Jordan, Andre Bollweg, Lenne Kaffka, Carolina Gorun)
10. Claudia Andas – “The One” (Samuel Bugia Garrido, Roxana Elekes)
11. CornEL – “Take Me Away” (Trandafir Stefan-Suraj, Ciubotaru Cornel-Ionut)
12. Cristian Simionescu – “Nirvana” (Cristian Simionescu)
13. Dan Manciulea – “Rază de soare” (Dan Manciulea)
14. Denisa Trofim – “Tears” (Alexandru Luft, Tiberiu Bancila)
15. Diana Brătan – “Paint It Rainbow” (Diana Brătan)
16. Dora Găitanovici – “Fără tine” (Dora Găitanovici)
17. Echoes – “Mirror” (Liviu Elekes, Claudiu Danaila)
18. Eduard Santha – “Mesom romales” (Alexandru Luft, Eduard Santha)
19. Elena Hasna – “Revival” (Ylva Persson, Linda Persson, Dan Attlerud)
20. Elena Turcu – “The Perfect Fall” (Marian Nica, Alexandra Ivan)
21. Eliza Chifu – “So Good Without You” (Valeriu Moruz)
22. Endless feat. Maria Grosu – “Thinking About You” (Will Taylor, Jonas Gladnikoff)
23. Erminio Sinni & Tiziana Camelin – “All the Love Away” (Erminio Sinni, Mauro Goldsand, Alessandro Camponeschi, Tiziana Camelin)
24. Evermorph – “Life Your Life” (Alin Neagoe, Ciprian Lemnaru, Alexandru Rotarescu)
25. Feli – “Facil de amar” (Felicia Donose, Florin Boka, Vlad Popescu, Serban Cazan)
26. Freia – “Fix Me” (Badea Victoria Iona, Gajaila Alexandru Daniel)
27. Hellen – “From Underneath” (John Ballard, Magnus Hyden)
28. The HUMANS – “Goodbye” (Matei Alexandru Mihai, Alin Neagoe, Cristina Caramarcu)
29. Iliana – “I Won’t Lie” (George Lazar, Eduard Taras, Elena Morosanu)
30. Ioana Ciornea – “Time After Time” (Daniel Lazar, Cini Dominique, Christian Arding, Mario Farrugia)
31. Jessie Baneș – “Lightning Strikes” (Pelle Blarke, Ellie Wyatt)
32. Johnny Bădulescu – “Devoted” (Michael James Down, Primoz Poglajen, Jonas Gladnikoff)
33. Jukebox feat. Bella Santiago – “Auzi cum bate” (Alex Luft, Bogdan Marinescu, Cristina Dobrescu)
34. Lina – “A Love Worth Fighting For” (Lina Sanden, Gustav Nilsson, Johan Smith)
35. Liviu Anghel – “Rise Up” (Bogdan Marian Paunescu)
36. Lion’s Roar – “Rekindle the Flame” (Liviu Sorescu)
37. Manuel Chivari – “Somebody to Love” (Michael James Down, Will Taylor)
38. Mareș Pană – “Daydreamer” (Mareș Pană, Catalin Margarit, Georgian Marin, Stefan Adrian)
39. Maria Suciu – “Sweet Nothing” (Madalin Botezatu)
40. Meriem – “End the Battle” (Meriem Vizitiu, Mihail Gheorghe, Marian Achim)
41. MIHAI – “Heaven” (Michael James Down, Will Taylor, Jonas Gladnikoff, Mihai Trăistariu)
42. Miruna Diaconescu – “Run for You” (Radu Pompiu Bolfea, Marcel Prodan)
43. Nicoleta Țicală – “Una oportunidad” (Samuel Bugia Garrido)
44. Othello – “Noi suntem pădure” (Florentin Milcof, Laura Sgarcitu)
45. Paula Crișan – “I Am Here” (Paula Crișan)
46. Pragu de sus – “Te voi chema” (Calin Barcean)
47. Rafael – “We Are One” (Rafael Ciobotaru, Alexandru Nuca)
48. Romeo Zaharia – “Maybe This Time” (Fred Endersen, Olaf Owre)
49. SAVE – “All We Need” (Stelian Savu, Vlad Isac)
50. Serena – “Safari” (Baisan Radu, Serban Diana, Nistor Mircea)
51. Sergiu Bolotă – “Every Little Thing” (Sergiu Bolotă)
52. Tavi Clonda – “King” (Alex Luft, Alina Coltan, Cristina Dobrescu, Bogdan Marinescu, Alexandru Duma, Denisa Demian)
53. Teodora Dinu – “Fly” (Thomas Reil, Jeppe Reil, Udo Mechels, Maria Broberg)
54. TIRI – “Deșert de sentimente” (Mihail Tiric)
55. Tom Leo Wiart – “Teardrop Rain” (Marius Cobianu)
56. VYROS – “La La La” (Vladimir Cioban, Mihail Cebotareco)
57. Wakeska – “Reborn” (Waleska Diaz Gonzalez)
58. Xandra – “Try” (Michael James Down, Will Taylor, Jonas Gladnikoff)
59. Zavera – “Come Back to Me” (Florin Octav Ionescu)
60. ZOLTAN – “Dacă dragostea e oarbă” (Sebestyen Zoltan Laszlo)

Since there is way to many names, then among a few interesting ones, then we do have both MIHAI and Alex Florea who both have represented Romania in the contest before.

Then among some of the other singers, we also have Eduard Santha, Jukebox and Xandra, to name a few that took part in the selection in the past. Then there is also Teodora Dinu who was part of Ovidiu Anton’s team, when Romania got disqualified in 2016, she also tried as a solo artist last year, and there is also Sergiu Bolotă who also tried as a solo artist last year, with a song penned by Stig Rästa, who represented Estonia in 2015, and is also competing as a solo artist in Estonia this year as well. Both were sadly eliminated during last years audition round.

Among some of the songwriters, we find many more familiar names, such as John Ballard who has 2 songs in the selection, he was part of the teams of Azerbaijan 2013, Russia 2014 & 2016 and Greece 2017. Mihai Alexandru who has penned a song for Alexia & Matei, he wrote the Romanian entry of 2003 and 2017. Ovidiu Anton, who won the Romanian selection in 2016 has penned for Ayona. The Swedish sisters of Ylva & Linda Persson who has in the recent years penned a lot of songs around Europe, this time for Elena Hasna. Then finally, we find the trio of Michael James Down, Will Taylor & Jonas Gladnikoff, who either all together, or with others have penned a total of 5 songs, all 3 are noted for have penned 4 songs each.

The 15 finalists will all be decided by a professional jury, the same jury that selected the 60 semi-finalists, among the jury we find following names:

• Liliana Ștefan
• Viorel Gavrilă
• Ilinca Băcila
• Nicu Patoi
• Marian Ionescu

Only 3 songs will qualify from each semi-final to the final, and the final will be decided by a 100% public televote. The semi-finals only give the public a chance to get to know the songs and artists, so you can only hope your favorite get to the final.

Should you have the time and interest to listen to all 60 songs, then you can do it by clicking on the following title(Site and title in Romanian):

Ascultă piesele semifinaliste

The final will take place on the 25th of February in the capital Bucharest.