Romania‘s broadcaster TVR has confirmed that it will again use the long-running national final Selecția Națională. But, following The Humans’ disappointing non-qualification in Lisbon, the broadcaster has made some changes to the national final format.
As we reported a month ago, Romania will again use semifinals and a grand final to select its act for Tel Aviv. However, according to a brief project description for directors on the broadcaster’s website, the national final will consist of three shows: two semifinals that take place in two different cities in the country, and the grand final that will be held in Bucharest.
Besides this, the document made another small clarification regarding the number of participants, stating that the maximum number of participants will be 27.
The other details of the show have stayed the same:
- Composers were able to submit their entries until the 10th of December
- The competing acts from the semifinals will be revealed on the 20th of this month
- There will be a national jury during the semifinals, which will be replaced by an international jury in the grand final
- The juries can send through a maximum of 5 songs to the final from each semi, while the televote will send one artist to the final, which means that a maximum of 12 acts will compete in the final (if the jury and the televote send the same artist through, then there will be 5 qualifying songs instead of 6)
- In the final, the international jury will decide the winner together with the viewers, with the televote practically being an extra jury member (similar to the heats and semis of Hungary’s A Dal)
- TVR will have the right to give a wildcard in every round of the selection, but this cannot lead to the elimination of any of the already qualified acts.
- The semi-finals are due to take place sometime in January or February 2019, with the grand final sometime in February.
The other contents of the document on the broadcaster’s website does indicate that TVR is looking for a director to run the show, as the document describes in detail how the show should look and feel — running time, introduction videos, etc. Does this mean that there’ll be a visual revamp of Selectia Nationala? Time will tell.
Are you excited about the reveal of the Romanian contestants? Do you think these changes will bring Romania back to qualifying? Sound off in the comments below.
Read more Romania Eurovision news here
RIP Romanian Melfest
TVR the public broadcaster just announced that 126 songs were submitted.. a record for us
‘Yodel it’ was chosen by 100% televote and was 7th (5th in televote in Grand Final). Is important to have good songs in competition, that’s all.
…and stay away from rock songs Romania. Is not what you do best.
The method is already a mess with the televote only counting as one jury member, so probably 15-20% impact on the overall result. I’m also scared the international jury might have very basic taste.
Nah, Romania will flop again, I am convinced.
I am convinced you better stick a sock in it
Better than last season’s televote only determining the winner.
Their televoting is the worst factor, to be honest. They had the lamest televoting results last year.
Just one year out of… 15+ the televote did pick the wrong act.
It’s the televote that had a bad taste in the last selection, to be honest.
I did submit a song in november for the selectia nationala and they did not contact me. Do you know if TVR will contact the people who has submit the songs via email to say that they have receive the song or something? thank you
Good luck Romania! I like the changes to the selection this season.