On Thursday Romania failed to qualify for the Grand Final of Eurovision for the very first time since the introduction of the semi-finals. Now, as fans point their fingers at the band, the song, and the Romanian broadcaster, TVR is shifting the blame to technical issues that reportedly prevented viewers in Germany and Italy from voting for the Romanian song “Goodbye”.
During the Second Semi-final, viewers in Italy were informed via the broadcaster RAI4 that no less than three telephone networks were down and that their respective subscribers could not vote for their favourite acts. These three providers were, according to Italian Eurovision site Eurofestival News, Wind, 3, and PosteMobile.
The site reports that an estimated 30 million people were affected by the outage during the 15 minutes of televoting. Furthermore, viewers in Germany were reportedly unable to cast their vote from one of the main telephone networks there.
In a press release posted on TVR website, the broadcaster highlights that a vast chunk of Romanian viewers in these two countries were unable to vote for The Humans, thus depriving Romania of the all-important diaspora vote that had helped push the home acts to the Grand Final in the past. Given that singer Cristina Caramarcu lives in Italy, which is also home to over 1.2 million Romanians, TVR was especially counting on the diaspora there to support The Humans and help them to qualify. Thousands of Romanians living in Italy and Germany took to social media to complain about not being able to vote, and their messages went viral.
Romania bid “Goodbye” to Eurovision 2018
The Humans won Selectia Nationala with a song that was considered dated for Eurovision 2018, but after the rehearsals in Lisbon, the press noted that Romania increased their odds of qualifying thanks to innovative staging, which included mannequins, masks, and a lot of movement. The positive feedback from the media on the ground increased TVR’s hopes that Romania would keep their qualification record intact.
After Romania failed to qualify for the Grand Final for the first time since the introduction of the semi-finals, Romanian fans have been expressing their disappointment with this situation on social media, some going as far as suspecting an EBU conspiracy to eliminate their country from the final show of the contest this year. This, of course, could not be further from the truth, as not even the EBU could shut down four mobile providers in order to prevent an act from advancing to the Grand Final — not to mention the fact that the organisers of the contest would have no reason to do so in the first place.
Meanwhile, The Humans also took to social media, to thank the fans for their support. They also thanked their detractors for encouraging the band to improve their performance, and called for the support of Romania’s artists regardless of the results.
Contrary to press reports, TVR has not filed any complaint
On Saturday morning, Romanian press reported that TVR had filed an official complaint with the EBU. However, we have contacted the Romanian Delegation for official confirmation, and they dispelled this as fake news. “As of this moment, no official complaint has been filed,” Head of Press Cristian Acatrinei told wiwibloggs, declining to make any further comment.
The EBU is yet to issue an official response. Until the split results are released tonight after the Grand Final, we will not know how close Romania was to qualifying and whether the technical problems in Italy and Germany were indeed The Humans’ downfall. Nonetheless, it is important to specify that not just Romania was affected by the outage and that the viewers in these two countries were unable to vote not just for The Humans, but for all of the 18 acts in the Second Semi-final. Moreover, the public at home could still vote via the Eurovision app.
What do you think? Did the televoting issues in Italy in Germany really impact Romania’s result? Were you unable to vote in Italy or Germany? Let us know in the comment section below!
Reminds me of last year when Jacques Houdek critized the juries of his neighbor countries. What a hilarious discussion.
When I voted on Thursday (from Germany) something weird happened. Instead of hearing the country’s name I voted for, the voice said that I had voted for Croatia. This happened twice. After that it was normal again.
As a TV station I would be ashamed and embarrassed if I had to admit that the own entry will only pass to the final due to diaspora voting. Instead of hoping that diaspora voting will be the reason that an outdated song reaches the final TVR should take care of paying their debts to the EBU.
Well, after the reveal of the split results, it turns out Romania received 12 points from Italy’s televote, so there you have it!
oh my lord, it actually DID cost them a place in the final, they were 11th by only three points that they would have gotten from Italy and Germany through diaspora voting.
But they received 12 points from Italy’s televote despite the problem
I’ve listened to this song more than once. It’s ok, but… come on, this would have been great in a show like ESC some 20+ years ago…
I’ve listened to the song more than once. It’s ok, but… it would have been perfect some 20+ years ago for this kind of show (ESC).
For me Moldova send so much better song than Romania from 2005 to 2018. Only in 2005,2006,2010,2014 Romania had better song than Moldova.
Only wiwibloggs lobbying so hard for Romania in past few days from start of reharasals, as they lobbying from reharasal for 2 albanian singer one from Albania and one from Cyprus. Before rehearasal they don t do that.
Oh the blame game has started. Their song just wasn’t good enough and their staging was too out there. The mannequins were an awful idea.
The song is good but there was a problem in Italy, my aunt couldn’t vote for her own country
Romania got 12 points from italy’s televote, look at the split results. The problem wasn’t there!
My suport to ROMANIA
Oh come on.. it’s not like diaspora has to vote for us. That’s not how the contest works. Just get over it and accept that the song and the staging were not good enough. Let’s do your best next year. There were so many great songs this year we def must step up our game.
It was probably not good enough for qualifying, but…
…I liked this entry more than last year’s Yodel It!
As romanian, I think Romania should stop sending rock songs. Hungary is better than Romania when it comes to rock, just like Italy is better than Germany at rap. Each country should focus on what it does best.
And nobody in Romania agrees with TVR, this reaction of TVR is like the reaction of rats when they smell poison.
So they basically admitted they only qualify due to diaspora votes? Well that’s honest!
So only bloc votes should be aloud? If UK wouldn’t have voted in the first semi do you think Ireland would have qualified? 3 nordic entries in second semi, how many points do you think they’ve exchanged?! I was able to vote but I can imagine the frustration of those who couldn’t. Fair play for all, please!
Ireland would have qualified any way. It felt authentic and touched a lot of hearts. all Scandinavian entries would still have made it because they were good
I don’t argue your opinion but you will see for yourself when the voting is revealed that I said is slso true.
Sorry Romania, I voted from Germany for other countries but not for you…
Bogdan Honciuc, you are out of you mind to give a voice to TVR. The same news is in Romanian media and are only negative comments against TVR. Romanians are NOT upset about NQ, and all comments are against TVR. So stupid broadcaster.
Lol, the only reason this failed was because it was an extremely bland entry, any other explanations are pure delusions. I’d say this is karma for TVR’s corrupted selection #Justice4Feli
Wil wiwi make an article about the drama thats surrounding Ryan and his old tweets?
What happened
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It’s easy to laugh if off, but actually i’ve read about the same problem concerning other country from semi 2 which didn’t go through. Actually a lot of countries with usually strong in televote didn’t go through. So i wouldn’t be suprused if ebu messed with the results. It is clearly visible that they support certain countries.
Sending an 80’s style soft rock song to eurovision 2018 was a silly idea.
But Romania, you looked amazing and great staging. Quit moaning and come back next year with a better song.
When the lines were closed they were closed for everybody, when the lines were open they were open to vote for everybody.
The percentage of votes for Romania should have been the same albeit in lower number. Unless there’s a phone company specially used by the Romanian diaspora.
Now, the thing with San Marino is the real deal, commentators should be impartial.
Block voting should stop, and the “Big Five” shouldn’t exist.
It, among other things, reduces the quality of the show. The benefited countries feel safe in sending worse songs.
Mmm well, I think every country in the 2nd SF was affected by this issue and not only ROmania. Every country lost potential points, not just Romania. But it is very funny how they are basically admitting that they qualify thanks to the diaspora. That’s a bit pathetic tbh.
Don’t be salty and admit there were better songs. I loved the performance, though.
I don’t know how it works in Italy or Germany but when I want to vote using app (I am Czech), it still makes me send SMS, so if something like that happened in Czech Republic, we won’t be able to vote at all
Also in Sweden. A friend voted when the lines were opened 20 times and when they closed he received the mesasaege that he voted after the lines were closed and his vite is invalid . So conclude yourself ?.
Conclude what? That your friend doesn’t know how to use a phone? For the record, I voted 20 times from Sweden without a hitch.
I am from Germany and I couldn’t phone. At first I was devastated but than I voted via the app (sms) and it worked. It would be interesting to know how many German voters could not phone.
I could phone but they were saying something else. One Time my Vote counted for Croatia which isn’t even in this semi-final and i also voted for Slovenia but they said my vote counted for Norway… (I didn’t want that 😀 )
That’s outrageous! I bet that’s also why San Marino, Russia, Georgia, Poland, Malta, Latvia and Montenegro didn’t qualify. If it weren’t for the televoting issues, 18 countries would have qualified for the final. 🙁
So sorry about its non qualification for relying in diaspora….
Not at all. If you send a bad song, dont expect it to qualify just because of the diaspora, because in a song contest, the truly unfair thing is making it to the final just because of national pride.
Get it over! It was a very hard semi final…everybody knew some good songs would not qualify
Ok, let’s do the things clear. I don’t know about this system of votes, I don’t understand it. Romania had a good performance. The song was good, but it seems it was not quite for this contest, it was rather for a rock Live Aid. I am sorry for them, because they are good and I am sorry because every time Romania was good, sometimes great. For example last year was very good, they finished on the 7th place, but this year maybe was not good enough to qualify. People, you take part for a very long time, you never… Read more »
So Romania, please qualify next year, I want to see you in the first 10 again.
A country shouldn’t rely on its diaspora vote to do well, if it does then it just proves that the song isn’t strong enough. Hopefully the likes of Romania, Russia, Azerbaijan, Poland etc will learn for next year and all send stronger songs rather than just safe ones because they think that the diaspora will back them up.
The results haven’t been released yet, so what if both Germany and Italy gave 12 points to Romania in the televoting anyway?
Next time send Farmacia Catena.
I’m dying :)))))
Like that’s going to happen…. 😀
From Italy…very likely.