After returning to the Eurovision grand final in 2022, Romania are jumping full steam ahead with their brand new Eurovision adventure for 2023. Broadcaster TVR has now revealed the names and the song titles of the 12 finalists for the country’s national selection, Selecţia Naţională 2023.
A specialty jury selected the 12 finalists out of 84 entries that were submitted. That is the last involvement a jury will have for this selection. In a change from previous years, the winning act of Selecţia Naţională 2023 will be decided exclusively by the public televote at the live grand final on 11 February 2023.
Selecţia Naţională 2023 finalists
- Adriana Moraru – “Faralaes”
- Aledaida – “Bla Bla Bla”
- AMIA – “Puppet”
- Andrada Popa – “No time for me”
- Andreea D Folclor Orchestra – “Periniţa mea”
- Deiona – “Call on me”
- Erin Dăneţ – “Bad&cool”
- Maryliss – “Hai Vino”
- Ocean Drive – “Take you home”
- No Artist – “Statues”
- Steven Roho x Gabriella x Formaţia Albatros – “Lele”
- Theodor Andrei – “D.G.T. (Off and on)”
Songs released so far
The 12 songs have not yet officially been uploaded by national broadcaster TVR and no date has been confirmed of when all the Selecţia Naţională 2023 songs will become available.
But, after the list was revealed, Eurovision fans were able to find three of them already posted on YouTube.
Theodor Andrei – “D.G.T. (Off and on)”
Theodor is a former X Factor Romania and The Voice Romania Junior contestant. The song “D.G.T. (Off and on)” appears on his debut album, Fragil. The song contains lyrics in both Romanian and English. The chorus of the song also appears in both languages. The title, “D.G.T.” (pronounced in Romanian as “degete”) means “fingers”. The song speaks about being messed up by love.
Steven Roho x Gabriella x Formaţia Albatros – “Lele”
Steven Roho is a Romanian producer, songwriter and singer. Formaţia Albatros has a long history, performing since the early 1990s. In this Selecţia Naţională entry, they are in charge of the instrumental part of the song, while Grabriella provides the vocals. Their entry is a party song about “washing all the pain away”. The lyrics speak about carrying the faith “like a sword” through the dark.
Andreea D Folclor Orchestra – “Periniţa mea”
Andreea D is a Romanian singer who has had a series of collaborations with a international artists such as Adam Clay and BoyFlow. The song “Periniţa mea” offers a dose of Romanian folk music. It’s about the joy of the Romanian traditional dance, “periniţa”, a dance that brings people together. The dance represents a wedding tradition — a dance of joy and love meant to help people to socialise and sometimes even to couple them.
What do you think about the first songs of Selecţia Naţională 2023? Do you have a favourite already? Let us know in the comments below.
So, out of the twelve songs, we have now heard four songs in full – snippets from another four songs – and four songs are totally unknown at this point. I figured now would be a good time to give my first thoughts on this selection of songs from the Romanian NF. So, in the four released songs, there are already two bop bangers, IMO: Steven Roho x Gabriella x Forma?ia Albatros – “Lele” Ocean Drive – “Take you home” The other two released songs are not so good… Then based on the snippets we get, those songs also aren’t… Read more »
Where are the rest of the songs?
So far we’ve only got a 15 second snippet of ‘Bla Bla Bla’ and it’s already one of the best songs from this year’s national final season! I can’t wait to hear the full song and with an explosive staging this song could easily be a smashing hit in May at Liverpool!
It’s pretty basic in my opinion, if it was in any other country’s NF I would dismiss it already. But considering this is Romania we’re talking about, it’s probably the best option they’ll get.
Personally I quite enjoyed most of the songs so far that have either been fully released or have snippets from Romania. I think there’s potential for some to grow even more but I still believe ‘Bla Bla Bla’ to be the best option so far. Although the idea isn’t new, historically female dance songs have faired really well at Eurovision. Apart from being super radio friendly, a dynamic performance could definitely elevate this song and bring some of the ‘Fuego’ vibes.
Erin sound promising
And the others songs ? Im sad…
Very poor.
I’m very excited for Perini?a! It’s a traditional dance and I feel like it could do very well if the staging is right and brings energy and joy. I’m also happy that it appears like more songs will be in Romanian this year! The last time Romania sang in Romanian was 2015.
Tomorrow, we will get the rest of romania’s entries, and it will be the first night of FIK in Albania!
Are these entries available now?
Three are available now, but I’m surprised that the rest haven’t been released yet. I thought they were going to be released today but I guess not.
I know the “risk” of saying this but; Lele alone sounds way better than Benidorm’s 18 snippets
Agree, don’t get hype about Blanca’s and Megara’s entries, lele is way better than benidorm fest songs
bla bla bla? Parole parole.
bla bla bla? Soldanto parole
Lele or Andrea for Romania
who are they ?
“Lele” is going to be hard to beat for me.
“Perini?a mea” sounds like something I would expect to hear on a train from Chisinau to Bucharest.
The song “Lele” is Amazing !
I loveeee the instrumental part !
I really like DGT. I don’t know if it does well at Eurovision, but I like it.
I think they gave up on it
i missing the https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/svg/1f996.svg
hey,my fanclub is busy.
Let’s wait for tomorrow when all of the songs will be released!
Andrada Popa released a snippet and it sounds amazing, I’m pretty sure she will be my favorite, but I’m also having high hopes for Aledaida, AMIA and Erin.
From those 3 already released songs, none of them is worthy to represent Romania…
Romania is always going to the extremes – Either juries have too much control, or the televote does. Considering that Romania finally had a very solid result, and Moldova even a great one, with songs that are more on the unpolished, televote-friendly side of things, I expect *a lot* to similar entries in their selections this year. I mean… fine, sure. Two of these entries, Lele and Perinita mea (whatever Perinita is, as Google says it’s untranslatable) are exactly what I’d expect from Romanian / Moldovan pop-folk. Not for me, but I’m sure that many fans will appreciate them. D.G.T.… Read more »
I know there’s a dispute in this matter, and I have said a lot on that, but ANY qualification is worthy of a ”solid” title in my book, especially if they escape bottom 5 in the finals. 2017 result wasn’t just ”solid”, but downright great.
That’s at least my opinion. Everyone is free to disagree. But 18th on my personal list each year is a song I usually like a lot, so there’s no reason to be much upset of that position overall, unless I strongly think the song should have been in contention for the win.
Especially countries like Romania (and now Croatia, Georgia, Ireland, North Macedonia, ect.) take it as a glass half full.
PS. What ”F-word”. Did Llamame contain profanity? I can’t think of any…
Oh! You mean ”fraud”. Not in the lyrics, but in the background. 😉
Agreed. Jurors from these 6 juries should be barred from judging musical contests. It’s embarrassing for the broadcasters, as well as fans from these countries.
Okay, I wouldn’t call bottom 5 in the finals ”solid” either way, but there’s still a difference between a so-so result of Belarus 2019, Finland 2018, and Czech Republic 2022, and downright terrible results of The UK 2021, Germany 2022, Germany 2021, Germany 2019… (in short, a lot of Germany here) 😉 😉 😉 Being an AQ means there’s nowhere to go if you don’t make it that one night. If I was a big five country citizen, I’d rather be competing in the semis.
Germany is often having okay, but safe entries. Being an AQ, they can’t be compared to the less impactful entries that usually stay in the semis. Their direct competition is already one step up. AQs need to be twice as impactful to escape the bottom in the finals than Q entries do. Knowing German musical scene, there’s no reason not to take more risks. France 2022 is probably the biggest AQ robbery ever, though. It’s in my top 5, and would have made a great winner. As I said, I wouldn’t even be *that upset* if it finished 17th-18th or… Read more »
I understand that. Top 10 would ideally be the goal. Still, I feel like being dissatisfied with 11th-20th spots somewhat implies there are *more* weak than good songs in the contest overall. If there are usually around half of songs that are good, then I see around half of placements as satisfying, more or less. I mean, I like songs in ”my teens” quite a lot most of the time. I just love some songs even more. I hope it makes sense. But I get that different people define it differently, and it’s totally fine. 🙂
France 2022 and Estonia 2016 make me upset more than any other placement in the last 10 years. Both should have been in top 5, yet they both tanked as much as possible. I am literally perplexed on why. 🙁
Portugal 2018 as well. Three phenomenal entries.
I loved that song in 2018, and I LOVE it even more now. 2018 was filled with great songs, but even so, this is one of the best ones, and the result is highly unfair.
Indeed. Their 2020 selection was great. Their 2022 selection was a cluster, but we still had 10-15 solid entries in there. We are still waiting for the remaining nine, but Lele and Perinita mea crossing into top 12 makes me worried for their chances this year.
Who insulted whom and how? No matter the reason, sounds like something completely unacceptable.
Thanks for explaining. That is horrific! This guy should be fired from his job. Poor contestants. 🙁
Andrea d folclor!!!
Words cannot express how much I hate that song.
A shame Aris or E-An-Na aren’t back. They REALLY deserved to be in the final of the selecta nationala last year. In my opinion, they should be given a free entry card to one of the selections to the final since they were so loved by the public and were GENUINELY what Romania needed and it’s kind of unfair because the Jury CLEARLY were in control last time but this time they aren’t so much and the public are given more control but these two great artists are not here!