Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019


Romania participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the entry "On a Sunday" performed by Ester Peony who wrote the song together with Alexandru Șerbu and Ioana Victoria Badea. The song was selected through a national final organized by the Romanian broadcaster Televiziunea Română.

Background

Prior to the 2019 contest, Romania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest nineteen times since its first entry in 1994. Its highest placing in the contest, to this point, 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.
In 2018, Romania failed to qualify to the final, placing 11th in the second semi-final with the song "Goodbye" performed by The Humans. This marked the first time that Romania failed to qualify to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest since the introduction of semi-finals in 2004.

Before Eurovision

''Selecția Națională 2019''

As a consent from a conference regarding changes to be implemented for Romania's next Eurovision participation following 2018's "failure", Selecția Națională 2019 has been announced as the national selection organized by TVR and its regional studios in order to select the country's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. Romania had previously confirmed its participation in the contest on 20 September 2018. Selecția Națională 2019, having the slogan "Împlineşte visul!", consisted of three shows: two semi-finals in Arad and Iași and a final in Bucharest. They were sponsored by Ford.

Format

11 songs competed in the first semi-final and 12 songs in the second semi-final, with the five entries in each attracting the most points from a national jury — consisting of Adi Cristescu, Mihai Georgescu, Crina Mardare, Andy Platon and Mugurel Vrabete — qualifying for the final. A further one entry from the remaining, non-qualified ones with the most votes from the audience were passed into the final.

Competing entries

TVR opened a submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries between 9 November and 10 December 2018, during which a total of 126 entries were received. 24 semi-finalists for Selecția Națională 2019 were announced by TVR on 20 December 2018, chosen by an 11-piece professional jury consisting of:
Soon after, Dan Bittman withdrew his entry "Pierd" from the contest due to conflicting schedules. Out of the nine submissions received and rated by the aforementioned jury, Bella Santiago's "Army of Love" and Linda Teodosiu's "Renegades" replaced the latter as wildcards. After the announcement of the two wildcard acts, Mihai withdrew his entry "Baya" from the contest; he cited the unclear organization of the Selecția Națională, as well as allegedly "favoured" contestants as reasons. Xandra would also later withdraw her song "Independent" for unknown reasons.
ArtistSongMusic / Lyrics
2 Gents"Ielele"Alexandru Antonescu, Cătălin Tamazlicaru, Ciprian Rogojan, Doru Todoruț
Aldo Blaga"Your Journey"Aldo Blaga, Olivier Bassil, Nicoleta Roman
Bella Santiago"Army of Love"Resciebelle Barrios Santiago, Alexandru Luft
Berniceya"The Call: Dynasty of Love"Florin Chitiul
Claudiu Mirea"We Are the Ones"Mihai Ogășanu, Claudiu Mirea
Dan Bittman"Pierd"
Dya and Lucian Colareza"Without You "Sergi Gascon, Daniel Andres Giraldo Mazo
Echoes"High Heels On"Liviu Elekes, Claudiu Dănăilă, Pavel Petricenco
Ester Peony"On a Sunday"Ester Alexandra Crețu, Alexandru Șerbu, Ioana Victoria Badea
The Four"Song of My Heart"Cătălin Dascălu, Theea Miculescu
Georgy"Tears"Valentin Muntean, Claire Avakian
Johnny Bădulescu"Give Up Now"Rob Price
Laura Bretan"Dear Father"Mihai Alexandru, Alexandra Niculae
Letiția Moisescu and Sensibil Balkan"Daina"Mihai Ogășanu, Marian Enache, Roni-Cristiana Cazacu
"Renegades"Jonas Thander, Rachel Suter, Frank Giustra
Mihai"Baya"Mihai Trăistariu, Michael James Down, Will Taylor
Nicola"Weight of the World"Michael James Down, Will Taylor, Jonas Gladnikoff
Olivier Kaye"Right Now"Ovidiu Jacobsen, Shani Kfir, Rasmus Bosse
Ommieh and Anakrisez"Rock This Way"Eduard Cârcotă, Alexandru Bugan
Steam"The Way It Goes"Sorin Cotorceanu, Mihai Iulian Rapeanu
Teodora Dinu"Skyscraper"Udo Mechels, Laila Samuelsen, Jonas Brøgger Filtenborg
Trooper"Destin"Aurelian Dincă
TMW"Make Me Your Man"Adi Campurean, Adrian-Radu Rusu, Eduard Cârcotă
Vaida"Underground"Hanif Sabzevari, Michael James Down, Will Taylor, Tonje Gjevjon
Xandra"Independent"Alex Luft, Eduard Santha, Denisa Demian, Alexandra Șipoș
Xonia"Discrete"Leticia Ascencio, John Scott Mulchaey, Edliberto Mendez, Bexx
Semi-final 1
The first semi-final took place on 27 January 2019. Eleven songs competed and six qualified to the final. A jury panel first selected five songs to advance: "We Are the Ones" performed by Claudiu Mirea, "Army of Love" performed by Bella Santiago, "Destin" performed by Trooper, "Without You " performed by Dya and Lucian Colareza and "Skyscraper" performed by Teodora Dinu. The remaining six entries then faced a public televote which determined an additional qualifier: "Underground" performed by Vaida.
Semi-final 2
The second semi-final took place on 10 February 2019. Twelve songs competed and six qualified to the final. A jury panel first selected five songs to advance: "Dear Father" performed by Laura Bretan, "Renegades" performed by Linda Teodosiu, "On a Sunday" performed by Ester Peony, "Daina" performed by Letiția Moisescu and Sensibil Balkan and "Right Now" performed by Olivier Kaye. The remaining seven entries then faced a public televote which determined an additional qualifier: "Your Journey" performed by Aldo Blaga.
Final
The final took place on 17 February 2019. Twelve songs competed and the winner was determined by the combination of the votes from a six-member international jury panel and public televoting. Each member of the jury voted by assigning scores from 1–8, 10 and 12 points to their preferred songs. The members of the jury were William Lee Adams, Deban Aderemi, Alex Calancea, Șerban Cazan, Tali Eshkoli and Emmelie de Forest. The seventh set of votes were the results of the public televote, which had a weighing equal to the votes of a single jury member. After the votes from the jury panel and televote were combined, Ester Peony was the winner of the competition with the song "On a Sunday".
The final featured guest performances by Emmelie de Forest, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013, as well as Inis Neziri, as well as by Netta Barzilai.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" 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 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 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Romania was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 16 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.
Once all the competing songs for the 2019 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 6, following the entry from Latvia and preceding the entry from Denmark.

Semi-final

Romania performed sixth in the second semi-final, following the entry from Latvia and preceding the entry from Denmark. 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 that Romania placed thirteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 71 points: 24 points from the televoting and 47 points from the juries.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. 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, no member of a national jury was permitted to 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 as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

Points awarded to Romania

Points awarded by Romania

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Romanian jury: