Earlier this month, Romania‘s broadcaster TVR confirmed they would be ditching their traditional national final and would instead internally select their act for Eurovision. Now TVR has confirmed that 20-year-old singer Roxen will be Romania’s representative in Rotterdam.
TVR confirmed the news this evening. Roxen shared her excitement, saying, “I am glad and grateful for this opportunity. At this moment, everything my energy and attention go to Eurovision, for which I want to prepare myself as best I can.”
Earlier this week, TVR confirmed that three artists had been shortlisted for the national final: Roxen, Diana V and Cezar. Roxen was the lucky artist who made the final cut
Her song for Eurovision will be selected at the revamped national final Selecția Națională. Roxen will sing five potential Eurovision songs at the grand final on 1 March. Romania’s song for Rotterdam will be selected by a combination of jury vote and televote. It will be an even 50/50 split.
Roxen’s potential Eurovision songs will be released on 21 February.
Who is Roxen? Meet Romania’s act for Eurovision 2020
Larisa Roxana Giurgiu was born in Cluj in the Transylvania region. She has been involved with music from a young age. She described her dream of performing: “As a child, I participated in various competitions and festivals, but I always wanted to make music at the highest level and dreamed of performing on stage and addressing the audience.”
Roxen is currently the third most played artist on Romanian radio. Her music and style has seen her compared to artists like Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa.
In September, Roxen was a featured vocalist on SICKOTOY’s “You Don’t Love Me”. The track is a dark, driving piece with English lyrics. The song was playlisted internationally and so far has clocked up over 4.5 million YouTube views.
In November, Roxen released her solo debut single “Ce-ti Canta Dragostea”. The electronic track has a folk-pop tinge with Romanian lyrics. To date, it has enjoyed more than 8.7 million views on YouTube.
Roxen isn’t just interested in music. She is passionate about painting, meditation, travel, dance and reading. She says she would like her music “to travel beyond the planet earth in the universe.”
What do you think? What sort of songs should Roxen sing at the national final? Tell us your thoughts below!
[…] Shortly after selecting Roxen internally, TVR unveiled the new plan for Selec?ia Na?ional? 2020. A songwriting camp was organized in January 2020 as a result of a collaboration with renowned label Global Records. Five songs were shortlisted by a jury of music experts to proceed to the revamped national final. […]
J’espère juste que la sélection de la chanson soie aussi réussi . Elle peux nous bluffee Roxen .
Bonne chance mon pays . ???
Bonne chance mon pays . ???
Romania’s ESC audience (for TVR) is now at under 200k. That’s not worth of a final or a more known singer. From what I see Roxen never sang on a stage in front of more than 100 people. Anyone predicting something at this point is just guessing.
True but TVR partnered with Global Records exactly in the hope of getting a known singer only to get the three newcomers to chose from. Anyway let’s just hope for a good song.
Good luck neighbors, hope to see you in the final with an amazing song, hugs from Ukraine:)))
One of the judges who decided which singer to be selected, Lucian Stefan, is the managing partner (owner) of the production house who manage Roxen. He was the only one representative of a Romanian Production House and his singer won. Definitely not a coincidence! Judges should to be impartial, neutral, with no connection with the candidates in a fair judging system. Conflict of interest! Shame!
No, you’re wrong. He only presented all the artists from Global Records to TVR. There, people from TVR + music experts (Luminita Anghel, Andrei Tudor, Liviu Elekes and more radio experts and video directors) chose 3 VOICES: Roxen, Cezar Guna and Diana V. From those 3, the music experts decided it’s Roxen, for her unique voice. Lucian Stefan ~ CEO of Global Records was NOT in the experts’ committee who decided Romania’s representative!
Everything has to be rigged somehow. Every single selection, someone has to be accused of rigging it.
Imagine if Moldova sends Natalia Gordienco, who finished bottom-five, before Romania sends him, who finished in fourth place the same year.
Should be enough to bring them back in final. And with the fortune Romania has had recently that should be a win..
Pourquoi tu parles d’argent wsh .. strictement rien a voir avec l’argent.. Fait pas d’amalgame ..
Five potential songs are a lot. I hope there is something good enough to stand out.
Good choice! 🙂 With the perfect song chosen, she may even bring Romania back to the final! 😀 #onlytimewilltell
i wonder if she’ll get her braces off before eurovision
She should, she sounds weird because of it in the video above (Ce-ti canta dragostea). Btw did anyone sing with braces on ESC stage before?
I’m not too sure about ESC, but there have been plenty at JESC. Just in the last two editions of JESC, I can think of four artists who performed with dental braces: Liza Misnikova (Belarus, 2019), Max Albertazzi (Netherlands, 2018), Marco Boni (Italy, 2018) and notably, JESC 2018 winner, Roksana Wegiel (Poland, 2018). It goes to show that not even a mouth full of metal can prevent a talented singer from delivering the goods and slaying on stage.
I know in jesc but i can’t think of anyone in esc… and for sure there’s a good reason why nobody sang with braces in esc.
Ok, I like the pick. But, really? What was the point of the revealing of the three artists?
This will be good
Felicit?ri România din Italia. Finally Romania will be back to the final.
Her voice and Romanian language fit perfectly. Hope, she´ll get a good song. Sounds promissing. Austrian here.
I’m cautiously optimistic. It’s clear that Romania is going for more radio-friendly sound this year, which is fine. Romania needs a safe bet to get back to the final (and it’s not gonna be easy, as they’re in the 1st semi), Roxen seems to be the right choice in that regard. Of course we don’t know the songs, so any predictions would be just as sensible as reading the tea leaves. But till March 1 I keep the faith.
yesterday you all hated all the artists. Now you love her? Fans memories is not long. Just One day.
High hopes for this one!
I didn’t know her before, but I like her sound and all I know is that a Romanian win is loooong overdue…
Michela 2.0
Karma – Chamelion
Wow….. ? slay queen !!!
I’m really looking forward to this! I love her vocals and her music is very contemporary which I always like
I got a feeling that Romania will be very strong this year, seems promising so far!
Exactement depuis 93 que la Roumanie essaye de se faire sa place faut que les Balkans gagnent ..
another country with generic young singer, why they doesn’t choose someone special and interesting with internal selections, you can choose bland girls with national selections
So far, I am not that impressed. To me, this little girl “Roxen” is like a Blanche.reloaded (no experience , weak vocals, and saved by the song). Hope she will have a cool song. 🙂
wait have you even heard sing live, she sounds amazing. And her music sounds nothing like Blanche’s
I dunno. Blanche did pretty damn well for herself.
…just because of the song.
You know Blanche got top five right? Comparing her to Blanche is a compliment. Also saying she has no experience is blatantly false — the song linked legit has 8 million views, she has been singing since she was 7, and is the third most played artist on Romanian radio.
A part mettre de la merde tu as autres choses a dire.. chante du billie eilish comme elle fait et tu me fais signe après..?
A really cool contemporary pick for Romania! Hoping for good things from her. And also, we can now officially lay out how each selection is working this year. National final for artist and song: Albania, Armenia, Australia, Belarus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Israel (separate ones for the artist and song), Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, and Ukraine National final for artist, internal selection for song: Georgia, Malta Internal selection for artist, national final for song: Romania Internal selection: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Russia, San… Read more »
And in case people are curious, here’s how the last few winners were chosen:
2010: National final with different match-ups for artists and songs
2011: National final for artists, internal selection for song
2012: National final for artist and song
2013: National final for artist and song
2014: Internal selection
2015: National final for artist and song
2016 and 2017: see above
2018: National final for artist, internal selection for song
2019: Internal selection
So there’s no one way to win this thing, as anyone could tell you.
“A slow clap is a form of heckling to show disapproval” Are you sure about that?
In case somebody’s interested, in the entire history of the contest 43 wining songs came from the traditional national finals, 16 were internally chosen just like the artists performing them, 4 were selected through the NFs but performed by the internally chosen singers, 2 were the winners of NFs with match-ups for artists and songs and 2 were internally picked for the artist who won the NF.
You know me. I’m the kind of nerd that pays attention to this stuff.
We knew from the beginning it was Roxen. Now let’s hope the best song it’ll be picked. Oh, and one more thing: in case of a tie (televote vs jury) the televote will prevail
Yeeeeessssss!