After missing out on the Eurovision grand final two years in a row, Romania‘s broadcaster is ready for change. TVR confirmed today that its artist for Eurovision 2020 will be internally selected. However, the public will still be involved in choosing the act’s entry from a revamped five-song national final.
The broadcaster confirmed the news today, explaining that extensive research had been done before making the decsion. The broadcaster studied the selection methods used by other European public broadcasters, including those of Spain, Greece, Russia, Cyprus, Bulgaria, the UK and France.
TVR also looked at Romania’s Eurovision results in 2018 and 2019, where the country placed 11th and 13th respectively. The broadcaster decided that a “new approach” was needed for selecting its act for Rotterdam.
Romania goes internal…
TVR will internally select its artist for Eurovision 2020. The broadcaster says a special jury will select the artist “on the basis of criteria such as vocal abilities, interpretation, musical empathy, expressiveness.”
But Romanian Eurovision fans won’t be missing out on a national final. Once the artist is selected, they will be matched with five songs, again selected by an expert jury. The jury will consider the “musical form of the piece, musical arrangement, originality, stylistic diversity and the message.”
The artist will perform those five songs at a national final, due to be held on 1 March.
…and has a national final
Romania’s song for Rotterdam will be selected by a combination of jury vote and televote. It will be an even 50/50 split, a change from last year’s jury which only gave one-seventh of the overall vote to the televote. In case of a tiebreak, the public favourite will decide the winner.
The broadcaster says it has looked to other countries who have successfully internally selected their artist for Eurovision and notes that internally selected acts usually feature in the Eurovision top three every year.
However, Finland may serve as a cautionary tale. In 2018 and 2019 broadcaster YLE used the same method, with internal selection for the artist and a national final for the song. This led to Saara Aalto placing second to last in the 2018 grand final and Darude finishing last in his semi-final. Finland has since returned to its traditional national final format.
TVR has recently struggled with low ratings for Selecția Națională, with only 340,000 people watching the 2019 national final, including a disappointingly low 40,000 viewers in the lucrative 18-49 demographic.
The broadcaster does not appear to have selected the artist yet. Details of the grand final location have also not been confirmed by TVR, however the mayor of the south-eastern city of Buzău has frequently talked about his city agreeing to host the show.
What do you think? Is this the right direction for Romania to take? Which artist (or artists) would you like to see heading to Rotterdam? Tell us your thoughts below!
Roxen and C.Dream ?
Just make Romania great again ?!!
yeah….we have been saved from the drama.
I would personally pick Nicoleta Nuca.
“…vocal abilities, interpretation, musical empathy, expressiveness…”
At least try and pretend that it’s anyone other than MIHAI. 😉
For sure is not Mihai, he’s not at Global Records.
Le jury prennent des chanteurs/euses chez Global Records ?
I think that is a good move, considering that is Romania. I think that with a good promotion and a good singer the country can really step up their game. They do have a good music industry, which is unexploited when it comes to Eurovision. Curious to see what they bring. Romania is in the toughest semi-final, so they must select something really good to shine (and make a proper stage, because Ester’s song was good, but the stage was really questionable).
Depuis bien longtemps que la Roumanie aurait dû gagner mais bon.. Aller la Roumanie on est avec toi ??
As long as wiwibloggs isn’t involved in the jury XD JK
Aly Ryan is quacking!
A L Y R Y A N
I actually really loved Goodbye and On a Sunday
Such a shame they didn’t qualify
same here
Roxen – she is rumoured to be the representative, as she appears in the promo for the Selection. She has an amazing voice, she resambles Billie Eilish, both physically and vocally. She already got a smash hit in the Romanian radio charts (and abroad) in the past few months, with Sickotoy:
https://youtu.be/l5FxqUBeyp8
She is not the one in that promo snippet. Is just a random girl that is not connected to the music world.
Yes, she is featured in the frickin promo, I said!
https://youtu.be/XlOT6CU2qok
Why didn’t the broadcaster look at the selection process of any countries that won in the past 10 years…? ?
Their point of view: they looked at the internally selected artists that ended up in top 3 in the past few years (Duncan Laurence, Eleni Foureira, Cesar Sampson, Kristian Kostov, Sergey Lazarev, Conchita, The Common Linettes and so on)…
After what happened last year, a completely internal selection would be the smart move. Unless the want to keep the gate open for another terribly unwise decision.
Maybe they will choose him just to get rid of him once and for all.
Lol 😀
It would be awesome if it was Mark Stam. He is the real deal.
makes no sense to have a jury at this type of selection tbh, either way if they internally selected someone it means it’s someone huge!
Pas forcément!
what about the artist’s involvement in the creation process? It says that they “will be matched” with five songs, but we don’t know whether those songs will be the artist’s doing or not. It’s confusing. If you internally select someone, you’d better let them write their own songs and then let the audience/jury decide for their favorite entry; let’s hope that the national final doesn’t turn into a puppet show.
Probably someone that never writes their own songs then obviously…
So kind of Finland-ish? Right?
Right
Another one going internal. I did actually like Ester and I kinda blame the weird stage on her failing to qualify. But I suppose that after two NQsin a row, they decided to shake things up a bit.
it is still 1/2 a national final though, for the song
If it’s an artist we know, it’s Bella Santiago, Laura Bretan or Mihai. But maybe it’s someone who isn’t already familiar to ESC fans. I guess the method of selection mystery is solved then. Now we know HOW the participating countries will pick their song. (Haven’t heard from Azerbaijan or San Marino, but I think it will be internally selected).
San Marino: internal selection between Valentina Monetta and Serhat 🙂
One of my friends joked once that they just have a roulette with Valentina and Serhat’s names on it and just throw a dart to see who’s going
I kinda hope they pick Irol MC this year. Rap, in Italian, which is already pretty cool. And he’d actually be from San Marino!
1in360 was a fun national final, wish they do that one again, again with funds from Zoe & family
Azerbaijan currently accepts song submissions until 7 February.
There are rumours that they have already chosen the artist, but we’ll probably know in early March.
The artist will most likely be Samira Efendi.
Bella … please … 🙂
NEVER. He is OVERRATED!
While it’s highly unlikely, I would like to see smiley take part. I think he’s at the moment, an independent artist and producer so he may not be among the talents under the record label that TVR is reportedly in partnership with for this year.
Laura Bretan, Laura Bretan, Laura Bretan, Laura Bretan! ?
If they want to be the center of controversy this year then sure
Expect a repeat of the Tolmachevy Sisters in 2014, a young girl reduced to tears after getting booed by an anti-homophobia Eurovision audience
If she sticks to singing with that beautiful voice of hers instead of using it to openly support a anti-gay marriage referendum, she should be fine. Otherwise i’d boo her too tbh.
I hope they pick Cezar again 😉
WOW….none of you know how to take a joke, huh?
wanna bet that laura bretan will be the artist internally “selected” ? :))
and that this is the first and last year when they will do this?
Good idea, after last year’s debacle. Now they can choose any hardcore homophobe they fancy and get away with it.
And why should that matter
It should say “Where they finished 11th and 13th IN THE SEMI-FINAL, respectively” 11th and 13th in the final isn’t a flop.
It’s going to be Laura Bretan, isn’t it?
No
I’m hoping either Bella Santiago or Irina Rimes.
She’s Moldovan
That might actually be the reason. Study both the successes and failures, and look how they came to be
FINALLY! This method works most of the times, i am sure they have good singers in Romania
Last month it was rumored they were in talks with Irina Rimes so she really might be the one they chose!
I hope it’s M I H A I. He really wants it. I’m afraid might be some talent show reject, so M I H A I is not that bad after all.
mihai should focus on his onlyfans account
NO
Mihai has been rejected many times in the years following his Selectia Nationala win and subsequent Eurovision participation.
Rumor has it TVR will select an artist managed by Global Records… Which is for sure the recording label to be right now in Romania. Most of the current hits come from them.
P. S They are the ones managing Inna, Faydee on the Romanian market, Irina Rimes, Antonia, Carla’s Dreams, Alina Eremia (JESC) and many other new very promising artists, such as Roxen or Andia . Just check it out 🙂
We will probably end up with Silvia Dumitrescu…
I am hyped
I do hope it’s a Global Records artist! They have amazing acts and songs. Adding to the list, there’s also Karmen, Delia, Raluka, The Motans, AMI, and Mark Stam, amongst many others… I very much doubt INNA or Antonia would do it – it’ll be amazing if they did… But I think Karmen, Raluka, Alina Eremia, and Roxen would be good shouts
I like that if they can snatch a good artist or record label. Their nf definitely needed a change after the last few tries.
This ought to be interesting.
This is so predictable! The artist and the songs were already chosen. TVR always had an internal selection but they just faked it as a national final!
Omg this could be amazing, or a disaster!!! So many great acts in Romania, but they never take part in the national finals. Maybe now some of the good ones actually do want to do it ?
As long as TVR is in charge I highly doubt that any decent and successful Romanian artist would consider taking part. One of our brightest stars now like Smiley, Andra, Marius Moga, Randi, Loredana, Delia, etc have previously taken part in the national selections but stopped doing it when they realized what TVR is actually doing – having an internal selection and faking it as a national final.
it is both, kinda weird for you maybe, but finland had it last 2 years, Greece in 2017 for demy, even Cyprus had this for Ivi in 2012
it could be Delia, i had seen a rumour TVR working solely with global records, and she had recently released music with that label
How is the selection process not a problem since the big and established artists avoid taking part due to the numerous scandals around TVR?
Pls no
Hope the Romanians got enough international spirit to pick the right Song.
Laura Bretan !
Feli please!!
Sounds like a recipe for disaster. In the end will be a song like Perfect Life – Levina, or This Is Love – Demy.
Whatever.
UMK 2.0
Imagine if they send Mihai xD
That would be funny haha
On the majority of the Romanian articles all I see is this horrible pic of The Humans used. How come? It’s not the first time… From what I know Ester Peony was last year’s representative, her picture should be used. Thanks in advance!
If the selected songs are bad however what good will it do?
It’s not the selection that’s necessarily wrong but the songs competing in it
depends on the artist chosen for this honestly, i mean finland had not much to hide with either a musical pop Saara, or EDM with Darude