The lineup of Romania‘s national final has grown by one artist. The Romanian folk-metal band E-an-na has been given a place in the Selecția Națională 2022 semi-final after successfully appealing their earlier exclusion. As well, another act has has changed their song after losing a member who is unable to travel to Romania.

Acts who initially didn’t win a place in the Selecția Națională semi-final had 24 hours to appeal the selection jury’s decision. The special Appeals Analysis Commission received appears from four acts: E-an-na with “Malere”, Renate Grad with “Still Alive”, SAVE with “Deep Water” and Ioana Popescu with “Between Two Rains”.

However the commission — consisting of selection jury present Cristian Faur and Eurovision veteran music directors Liana Elekeș and Gabriel Scîrleț — decided that only E-an-na should get a place in the semi-final. This now makes a total of 46 acts who will compete in the contest.

E-an-na are a Romanian folk-metal band. They are described as combining “the classical folk metal approach with traditional Romanian elements and sequences of modern metal.” The group appear to have eight members, so would need to drop two if they were selected for Eurovision 2022.

Another semi-finalist has replaced their song. The trio Alex Parker & Erik Frank & Bastien has withdrawn their entry “Best of Me” as group member Erik Frank is unable to travel to Romania for the shows. Instead the act is now just Alex Parker & Bastien and they will perform their song “All This Love”. The song had previously been selected for the semi-final, however as acts are only allowed to enter one song the then trio had gone with “Best of Me”.

The rest of the Selecţia Naţională 2022 lineup remains the same.

The format of Selecția Națională 2022

The 46 acts will compete in the two-part semi-final, due to be held in February. In the first stage of the semi-final, the music videos of the semi-finalist songs will be posted online. The expert jury will vote to select the first 15 acts to pass to the next stage. A public vote on the Romanian Eurovision Facebook page will be used to select five more acts, making a total of 20.

The second stage of the semi-final will involve a live show held on 12 February 2022. The 20 semi-finalists will perform their songs live. The performances will be voted on by the jury alone with no televote. The top ten placed acts will then progress to the grand final.

The grand final of Selecția Națională 2022 will be held on 5 March 2022. The ten finalists will perform their songs live and the winner will be decided by a combination of jury vote and public SMS votes. Viewers are only able to vote for each entry once per phone number.

And then Romania will have decided who’ll be travelling to Turin in May for Eurovision 2022.

Selecţia Naţională 2022 – Competing acts

  • Aldo Blaga – “Embers”
  • Alex Parker & Bastien – “All this love”
  • Alexa – “Hoodies and cold nights”
  • Alina Amon – “Without you”
  • ANA – “Youngster”
  • Andra Oproiu – “Younique”
  • Andrea Stocchino – “Avere paura”
  • Andrei Petruş – “Take me”
  • ARIS – “Do Svidaniya”
  • Ayona – “Let me come to you”
  • Barbara – “Hypnotized”
  • Bogdan Dumitraş – “Sign”
  • Carmen Trandafir – “Măşti”
  • Cezar Ouatu – “For everyone”
  • Ciro De Luca – “Imperdonabile”
  • Cream, Minodora şi Diana Bucşă – “România mea”
  • Dan Helciug – “241”
  • Dora Gaitanovici – “Ana”
  • E-an-na – “Malere”
  • Eliza G – “The other half of me”
  • Eugenia Nicolae feat. Cazanoi Brothers – “Doina”
  • FABI – “That way”
  • Forţele de muncă – “Hai afară, frate!”
  • Gabriel Basco – “One night”
  • Giulia-Georgia – “Fiind your way”
  • Ivel – “Neverending”
  • Jessie – “Regret”
  • Kyrie Mendél – “Hurricane”
  • Letiţia Moisescu – “Mirunica”
  • Leyah – “I’ll be fine”
  • Mălina – “Prisoner”
  • Miryam – “Top of the rainbow”
  • MØISE – “Guilty”
  • Oana Tăbultoc – “Utopia”
  • Olivia Miheţ – “Fragile”
  • Othello – “You’re worthy”
  • Outflow – “Running in circles”
  • PETRA – “Ireligios”
  • Roberta-Maria Popa – “Indigo”
  • Romeo Zaharia – “Until the fight”
  • Seeya – “Save me”
  • Sophia – “Beautiful lies”
  • Stelian – “Remember”
  • VANU – “Never give up”
  • Vizi – “Sparrow”
  • WRS – “Llamame”

What do you think? Does Selecția Națională need more folk-metal? What sort of act would you like to see represent Romania in Turin? Tell us your thoughts below!

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Cristi Lavin
Cristi Lavin
2 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Rpyc5iMfM
I know I wasn’t a fan of E-an-na, but after the live performance, it is a grower for me, the best scenic movement from 45 singers and bands! Good for E-an-na!

Last edited 2 years ago by Cristi Lavin
Cristi Lavin
Cristi Lavin
2 years ago

MY TOP 46 (4 January 2022) 1)Alina Amon – Without you 2)Cezar Ouatu – For everyone 3)Roberta Maria Popa – Indigo  4)WRS – Llamame 5)Miryam – Top of the rainbow 6)Andra Oproiu – Younique 7)Alexa – Hoodies and cold nights 8)Gabriel Basco – One night 9)Dan Helciug – 241 10)ANA – Youngster  11)VANU – Never give up 12)Eliza G – The other half of me 13)Andrea Stocchino – Avere paura 14)Stelian – Remember 15)Andrei Petrus – Take me 16)Seeya – Save me 17)ARIS – Do Svidaniya 18)Othello – You’re worthy 19)Sophia – Beautiful lies 20)PETRA – Ireligios 21)Bogdan Dumitras –… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by Cristi Lavin
Cristi Lavin
Cristi Lavin
2 years ago

The selection is very weak. Even most of the songs (from the almost 50 titles list) are not released yet, about many I can already say I don’t want to be released ever. The only hope of Romania to qualify in the final is Alex Parker & Bastien and his unreleased song (yet). He did collaborate with many important singers from Romania as their composer. And he is not bad as a soloist too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whp6D7fFS90

AurelianTamisan
AurelianTamisan
2 years ago
Reply to  Cristi Lavin

So, your only hope to qualify is a song that you don’t know. And most of them were not released, but you already know it is a weak selection. Personally, so far I already heard 2 songs that would be decent candidates and would have all the chances to qualify. From 12, which doesn’t sound that bad.

Cristi Lavin
Cristi Lavin
2 years ago

I hope your name is not Aurelian Temishan, the famous Romanian singer…

Last edited 2 years ago by Cristi Lavin
Cristi Lavin
Cristi Lavin
2 years ago

Anyway, I heard also 2 songs that are listenable, but they don’t have such good chances for Eurovision. I am referring to:
(1) Othello-You’re worthy
(2) Vanu – Never give up

Also, I have great expectations for an unknown singer with a golden voice:Andra Oproiu, but her song is not released yet. People can appreciate her voice from a cover so far

trollo
trollo
2 years ago

*sEkReT*

Iván el Conquistador
Iván el Conquistador
2 years ago

It sucks only six people are allowed in ESC stage. It should be upgraded to eight to ensure bands with many members don’t have to choose who gets excluded.

trollo
trollo
2 years ago

quite messy, but whatever xd

Heartbeater
Heartbeater
2 years ago

I want to ask am I the only one that is confused about Romania’s NF It sort of reminds me about Belarus nf with true audition

lasse braun
lasse braun
2 years ago

not heard a lot from romania so far but “malere” is maybe an early co-favorite together with the song “romania mea”.
true balkan music!
🙂

Cristi Lavin
Cristi Lavin
2 years ago
Reply to  lasse braun

Balkan Music is related to Balkanic Mountains. So, a conglomerate of counties and people. Something which is transfrontier. So, judging as a concept, Balkanic music is not original from day one of its life. It’s like a cake combined with potatoes chips and with beef salad. No taste because too many flavors combined.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
2 years ago

if “providing a platform for mational acts and promoting eurovision” was on their mind, they would’ve added at least one act romanians care about (such as that song with 40 million streams that they discarded). instead, their eurovision-related ratings will keep going down as people don’t care for these nobodies.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
2 years ago

they won’t be building anything with this lineup tho, that’s the problem…

Lollipopmonster
Lollipopmonster
2 years ago

To add this folk-metal band E-an-na to the national selection was a very smart move from Romania – thank you for this.

Cristi Lavin
Cristi Lavin
2 years ago

If you have 50 ugly women, adding one more to the group is a smart move indeed ha-ha-ha

Ukraine stan
Ukraine stan
2 years ago

I’m a simple boy. I hear the word “folk”, I go absolutely bananas

Cristi Lavin
Cristi Lavin
2 years ago
Reply to  Ukraine stan

Bananas are exotic fruits, but folk music is more similar to potatoes, a portion of food for everybody and anytime, also very easy access to it, no big fuss at all

xXjerez
xXjerez
2 years ago

Wait Erik Frank is unable to travel in Romania, but in which country he lives ?

Cristi Lavin
Cristi Lavin
2 years ago
Reply to  xXjerez

Erik Frank is an African origin Romanian who traveled in Spain, France, USA during his life and perhaps his residence is in America right now

Last edited 2 years ago by Cristi Lavin
Escfan
Escfan
2 years ago

This song has to win! Europe will go crazy for this one!

Cristi Lavin
Cristi Lavin
2 years ago
Reply to  Escfan

See, for us, Romanians, anything which is Balkanic is an insult for every one of us, because it reminds us about a shameful origin of our people, who aspire to be Occidental, not Oriental, as we are still are, unfortunately (from bad historical pressure). Even Balkanic music is the most popular genre among peasants, the intellectual class refutes this kind of music by principle. It’s kitsch and it’s more: it’s dangerous, as a deadly weapon.

Jony88
Jony88
2 years ago
Reply to  Cristi Lavin

Speak for yourself

Cozmin COZMA
Cozmin COZMA
2 years ago

They just posted the ESC version of the song in one of the Facebook euROvision group!
I found this composition very interesting and it seems to me to be such a bop. We’ll see the live version and the show.
I’m steel waiting to hear Cesar’s and Wrs’s songs, these ones seems to be very promising.

Last edited 2 years ago by Cozmin COZMA
willchrisiam
willchrisiam
2 years ago
Reply to  Cozmin COZMA

Could you please share the link? I’m not on facebook nor Romanian so can’t seem to find it…

Cristi Lavin
Cristi Lavin
2 years ago
Reply to  willchrisiam

another song (the latest one) of WRS : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK1ETvHNFYE