The below editorial is the opinion of the author, and does not necessarily represent the views of ESC United as a whole and its staff members, and does not represent the views of anyone associated with the EBU and Eurovision.
It’s almost 2024, the new season for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest is slowly picking up, the holidays spirit is all around, and yet… there’s an unfortunate feeling in the air for Romanian Eurovision fans.
The Introduction!
Before we begin, I believe I need to present myself to anyone new. My full name is David Popescu, and clearly from my last name alone, it should give away that I myself am of Romanian descendent. However, that’s only from my mother’s side, since I’m also of Iranian descendent from my father’s side. So if there’s some lack of certain Romanian aspects, that should explain some of it. Most importantly, I was raised and born in Denmark, so my view on this topic comes pretty much down to how I was raised and how I’ve interacted with other Romanians.
Romania made their official debut in 1994 and did poorly. But they kept returning to the contest, despite the relegation rules from back then. Romania is represented in the contest by broadcaster TVR (Televiziunea Română), which most Romanians would agree is the main problem. The problem can probably be traced all the way back to the country’s communist era, when TVR was a propaganda tool and the only channel on Romanian television.
Nicolae Ceaușescu, the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, was known for being quite anti-Soviet Union, despite embracing communism as a whole. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Thanks to its location and history, Romania is distinctive in the region to this very day. This is why TVR was Ceaușescu’s perfect tool.
It was easy to manipulate, full control over broadcasting, and Ceaușescu was pure and simply seen as a “hero”… until enough was enough. (Interestingly, the Eurovision Song Contest was still broadcasted in Romania during the communist era, so viewers were well aware of the contest.) Unfortunately, all this propaganda and control had pretty much branded TVR as corrupt, something that follows the broadcaster to this very day.
TVR Becomes Part of the EBU
In 1993, after a few harsh years, TVR became a part of the EBU. This would re-structure the broadcaster, since it had now gained the benefits of being an EBU member. Romania didn’t hesitate to jump into Eurovision. The country selected its first ever entrant in 1993, but due to the high interest from other countries in Europe at the time, Romania had to qualify through a pre-selection round. (After the collapse of many Eastern European countries in the ’90s, the contest was seen as a way to access the open world, making it VERY important for new states and nations to participate.) Romania failed to qualify, placing 7th in the pre-selection round with the song “Nu pleca” by local pop-rock star Dida Drăgan. (See below.)
Romania officially debuted at the contest in 1994. garnering mediocre results over the next decade. In 2002, Romania finally achieved success with Monica Anghel and Marcel Pavel 9th place finish in Tallinn with “Tell Me Why”. The upswing continued into 2003 when Nicola finished 10th place in Riga with “Don’t Break My Heart”. Romanians could cheer and feel proud. This is something I can personally confirm, since this is when I was first introduced into the contest by fellow Romanians Eurovision fans.
Despite a poor result in 2004, Romania stood strong and achieved 3rd and 4th place finishes in 2005 and 2006. Both songs, “Let Me Try” by Luminița Anghel and Sistem and “Tornerò” by Mihai Trăistariu were massive summer hits. TVR had suddenly found something that could unite Romanians.
The interest was clear and could even be seen in the willingness of huge local start to compete in Romania’s national final. Artists like Loredana Groza, Laurențiu Cazan, Delia, Indiggo Twins, Akcent, Morandi, Simplu, Rednex, Andra, 3rei Sud Est, Costi Ioniță, Anda Adam, Connect-R, and even Inna have submitted songs in the past … OK, real moment here: how the heck were we at this point once, and now… at this, holy sh#t!?!?!
In the background, Romania as a country was developing. The country joined NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007. More commercial TV channels were accessible. There was economic growth, a rise from the grave of the Warszawa Pact. Even TVR could improve with higher quality, more channels, and a wider range of programs. Despite the growth, a problem that not even TVR could have seen coming was on the rise.
Poor Results Lower the Interest
There were VERY HIGH expectation for Romania to do well in the contest, potentially even host it. (Romania DID host Junior Eurovision in 2006.) Fan media back then believed that Romania could win Eurovision soon. Sadly, as we know, that didn’t happen. Interest was still high, but the results weren’t there. Romania managed to become one of the longest lasting countries to always qualify for the Grand Final, joining the ranks of countries like Greece, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. All of those other countries has one thing Romania did not, however: a Eurovision victory.
Despite the best efforts, Romania suffered a lot when it came to results, and it became very noticeable that it was thanks to the re-introduction of the juries. Between 2012 and 2014, Romania finished in the top 2 of their semi-finals, while finishing in the top 10 with the televote. (Watch their 2013 entry, “It’s My Life” by Cezar” below.) However, the juries downgraded Romania out of the top 10 all three times. Support was dwindling away, and local interest landed on something else… something else that was not even on TVR.
Slow but steady, other channels began airing programs that Romanians were actually interested in, mainly talent and/or reality shows, including X Factor, Romania Got Talent, The Voice, Masterchef, and localized shows like Chefi la Cutite, iUmor, Bravo, ai stil!, and America Express.
What Selecția Națională had done in the past, gathering talent from Romania and around the world, was now happening on other shows. Sure, some of you might think that these shows are seen as jokes and unimportant around the world … But I don’t think you understand: in Romania, the artists on X Factor or …Got Talent are incredibly talented.
This is probably where it just started to go down, but, very soon after, pure disaster struck…
The 2016 Disqualification
Here we are, the dark chapter. To those of you who remember this… THIS WAS PURE BULLSH**…!
It’s actually an important part of the decline, so we better revisit the dark days. With interest for the Eurovision Song Contest on the decline in Romania, this was THE MOMENT. It just went all wrong! With other shows on different channels gaining more attention, TVR was losing viewers, fast. The broadcaster had struggled to even fun Eurovision entries, though somehow agreements and money were found. Suddenly, in 2016, the EBU was threatening Romania’s chance at participation.
Why was this so chaotic at the time? Well, the EBU had themselves confirmed Romania’s participation well before. Romania had already selected Ovidiu Anton as their representative, and this all happened less than a month from when the contest was due to take place in Stockholm.
It turned out that TVR’s debt to the EBU had racked up since 2007, reaching a crucial state in 2010. Plus, the broadcaster had became far too heavily dependent on the Romanian government. The ghost of corruption from the communist era had been haunting TVR ever since, but it had become fully visible. Romanians had very negative views of both TVR and the EBU.
Romania usually ranks among one of the most corrupt nations, especially in Europe. Most Romanians will even admit this. It occurs clearly in front of them on a nearly daily basis. Most recently, this is probably a reason why Austria denied Romania’s accession to the Schengen Area, leading to boycotts of Austrian products and companies in Romania. Why are some of these non-Eurovision related details important? Because it shows the great lack of trust that actually exists among Romanians. These things are what lead to bribery, low payments, corrupt politicians, and missing funds, something that influences the national broadcaster and its overall participation at Eurovision
Semi-Final Disasters
The national final of Romania, known as Selecția Națională, is how Romania decides who will represent them in the contest. It had been a stable system for multiple years, with a jury and a televote usually deciding the winner together. However, TVR slowly started to become more “experimental”, implementing voting systems that were very questionable:
- In 2016, a new concept was tried out, with the televote fully deciding a winner, but with a jury commenting on each performances to guide viewer to the best conclusion (This was only in the final). Fair enough.
- In 2017, the semi-final was decided fully by juries and the final fully by televote. Questionable, but Ilinca & Alex Florea were considered the best, by both bodies, so no trouble.
- Then, in 2018, a disaster format, with five semi-finals, each with 12 songs, with the finalists picked by the jury.
What was the point of this, if viewers had no say in the end? However, the 2018 final was decided by only televote. The problem? Since this format was dreadfully long and unnecessary, opinions had already been made online, leading various Romanian online groups to sabotage the final results. Now how was this possible?
It’s very simple. TVR would occasionally reveal the current results, during a one-hour long voting window, so literally EVERYONE could see who needed to be pulled down. This was not the first time either. TVR had done this for years, but with a voting window THIS long, there was more than enough time to sabotage the results, which only required a few thousand votes. This resulted in The Humans BARELY winning in 2018, with a total of ONLY 3.277 votes. (Romania is a country of more than 20 million people. Not a great voter turn out.) As we all know, 2018 marked Romania’s first non-qualification… an actual proud record had been ruined.
Then 2019 happened. Just one year later, the public went from 100% deciding the winner to almost having a 0% say. Instead, the jury had (only in the final) an 86% say, 6/7ths of the final outcome. How did it work? Since there were six members in the jury, each of them literally had 1/7 of the final outcome, the same as the entire televote. Literally, one jury member had the same power as the entire nation. When it was finally time for the televotes to be added, the winner was 99% already decided. Laura Bretan needed to score max points, while Ester Peony had to score 0 points, which was literally impossible. To make matters worse, only one of the jury members were Romanian, while the rest were not. TVR had literally ignored the Romanians.
Since 2020 was cancelled and 2021 eventually became fully internal, we can look past those years. We shall still keep in mind that the damage was already far done, and interest was already gone. Then what did TVR decide to do? Another national final in 2022, once again where the juries were dominating the outcome. Again, what’s the point of a televised national final? Despite the best effort, Romanians felt ignored once again. In a turn of event, the Romanians who still kinda cared looked somewhere else now. A song about a train ride had the attention of not only Moldova, but Romania as well.
12 Points from Romania Goes to… Ukraine!?!?
We have now gotten to the VERY recent event: the cancelled jury votes of 2022. To those unaware, this turned out to be one of the biggest scandals in 2022 in Romania. The EBU had, shortly after the final of the 2022 contest, released a statement about six countries having their jury results scrapped due to suspicious voting patterns in the semi-final. These six countries were informed about this shortly before the 2022 final results were to be broadcasted. A week later, the EBU shared the results that led the to this decision.
Romania was one of these countries, and debate about this lasted for a while on Romanian channels, No one understood it. Why did the results from the Romanian jury get cancelled? Out of the six broadcasters singles out by the EBU, TVR even insisted the most to get a proper explanation from the EBU about the decision. The Romanian broadcaster was even ready to drag the EBU into court for this so-called “manipulation”.
Despite TVR‘s attempts and effort in understanding this entire situation, this was a breaking point. In a time where bullsh#t just wasn’t needed, with corruption, inflation, division and low trust, thanks to both the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this was a moment where no one wanted this disgrace to happen. Both TVR and EBU were now seen and still are, even to this day, as corrupt and non-trust worthy in Romania.
The missing 12 points to Moldova even caused some damage between the relationship between Romania and Moldova. It was literally unbelievable that “Trenulețul”, a song in the Romanian language that celebrated the brotherhood of the two nations, had scored zero points from the Romanian jury.
A debate was even held eventually on Romanian television. The main question? “Should Romania keep participating in the Eurovision Song Contest?” The majority had answered “yes”, but… not by Romanians. The poll got shared online and non-Romanians had spammed the “yes” option. Prior to that, the answer was far more towards a “no”.
No One Cares Anymore…
Throughout these recent years, there has been constant changes in the Romanian delegation. Instability, confusion and a lack of organization has been clear as daylight. 2023 proved this once again, with the winner of the national final fully decided by both Romanian and international online viewers. The interest was already just so low that anyone could literally win. As a Romanian myself, I did feel like I had the right to partake in the voting. But if you remember from the very beginning, I mentioned that I was born and raised in Denmark. I’ve lived my entire life in Denmark. The problem should be obvious. Anyone, from anywhere, could vote in the Romanian final this time.
Theodor Andrei became our representative, a young and talented boy who had so many ideas and visions for his time in Liverpool. All of it, just scrapped. We even had a chat with him in Chișinău, ahead of the Moldovan national final, where he explained in deep details about everything he had envisioned. From the meaning of his entire national final performance to his expectations in Liverpool… none of it was seen.
Shortly after the 2023 final, it was revealed that Theodor had scored… nothing! Literally zero points! The Romanian diaspora is very strong across Europe, but the Eurovision Song Contest just doesn’t get the Romanian attention anymore. I personally met some Romanians as well while in Liverpool, some casual viewers even, who were just there to enjoy the festivities. But when asked about this failure, they all said the same thing: this was TVR‘s zero points, not Theodor‘s.
Will Romania Participate in 2024?
We have now reached today, the EBU finally revealed the full list of participants for the 2024 contest. It was revealed that 37 countries will take part in the competition in Malmö, and maybe, it will become 38 countries. The potential country in question is… Romania.
This can honestly go either way, because, despite the lower and lower interest in the competition, the Eurovision Song Contest is still somehow one of the most viewed shows on TVR. This should say A LOT about how little attention TVR in general gets nowadays.
Romania and Moldova in Comparison
This is actually also an important topic, because for some reason, Romania struggles far more to remain in the competition. Meanwhile Moldova always somehow has enough in the budget to stick around. How is that possible, with Moldova being one of Europe’s most struggling nations? Countries like North Macedonia, Montenegro and even Bulgaria have been forced to pull out due to economic struggle.
It’s actually quite simple. Romania is far larger in size and population, therefore TVR must pay more to participate in the contest. Meanwhile, TRM (Tele-radio Moldova), the national broadcaster of Moldova, doesn’t need to pay as much. Plus, for Moldova, a country that struggles with accessibility into the rest of Europe, the Eurovision Song Contest in VERY important. In this competition, the country is on the same playing field as everyone else in Europe and has a chance to be seen and discovered, meanwhile Romania doesn’t need this exposure.
Romania has, since the fall of communism, worked hard as a country to get access and influence around both Europe and the world in all kinds of sectors … and have succeeded. It worked in the beginning with the Eurovision Song Contest, but, now, it is not as needed. Moldova, on the other hand, still need this exposure and attention. Hence, why the contest is VERY important in Moldova, but not anymore in Romania. It’s all about having the proper priorities.
A Personal Conclusion
With all this said, I would first of all, like to thank ANYONE who took the time to read all of this and make it this far. You have my deepest respect. Would I honestly want Romania to continue in this competition, as things are right now? Sadly… no, because even I have had enough. TVR is purely just a huge mess, it’s a waste of money at this point, and why even bother if we’re not going for the win? It’s honestly just a waste of time and energy as things stand right now.
Let me put it like this: 2023 is almost over by now, we have no idea whether Romania will take part or not at the moment, and if they do, then what? Time has run out. In less than 3 months, TVR needs to figure something out. If a national final is held, they need to accept submissions, check them, pick some entries, promote the national final, promote the eventual winner, plan the performance… I’m just going to stop myself already, because ALL of THAT, in less than 3 months?! It will already be a disaster once again!
What about an internal selection? I doubt they can find anyone “good” enough that wanss to make a contract with TVR, then settle all the financial details, then make promo… just no, I’m sorry, there’s just not enough time. No matter which option it ends with, it will end up being horrible, and I can’t justify that.
Unfortunately, if a withdrawal even happens, I think Romania won’t return for a good amount of years. The damage over the years, has just been horrendous, so much needs to be repaired, and continuously blindly participating won’t help.
Even worse, 2024 marks a great comeback for Romania in sports, especially with Romania having qualified for the upcoming EURO tournament in Germany. Shockingly enough, TVR doesn’t even have the broadcasting rights for that, which will be a huge loss for them, (They do have rights for the upcoming Olympics in Paris.) If Romanian athletes are successful here, then that could boost the viewership for TVR. However, far more than that is needed.
I wish to be proven wrong, but when you hear similar sentiment from fellow Romanians, then how can you even stay optimistic? Only a miracle at this point, can keep Romania in this competition. My personal view does not mean that I know for certain what will, but rather what I fear is about to happen. The heart and desire that I once saw and experienced, has just not felt the same.
Have #YOU changed your view on Romania’s participation after reading this, and should Romania keep taking part in future contests? Let’s hear from #YOU on our forum site right HERE, or visit us on Facebook, X(Twitter), Instagram, Youtube, TikTok and Discord.
