Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010

Selecția Națională 2010 was the national final organised by TVR in order to select Romania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. The winner of the national final was determined through the 50/50 combination of votes from regional jury panels and a public televote. The competition was televised on TVR1 and TVRi.

TVR opened a submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries between 9 December 2009 and 14 January 2010. A fifteen-member expert committee reviewed the received submissions between 25 and 27 January 2010. The broadcaster received 117 submissions after the submission deadline passed, of which 111 were eligible for consideration. Originally, between twelve and fifteen entries were to be selected, however sixteen entries were ultimately selected for the national final due to a tie for the lowest placings as ranked by the committee. For the 2010 contest, the committee reserved the right to change the initial performer of each selected entry. Should this be the case, composers would have between 28 January and 5 February 2010 to submit the final version of their songs with the new performers.[3][4] The competing entries were announced on 25 January 2010. Among the competing artists was Luminiţa Anghel, who previously represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005.[5][6] TVR hosted a presentation show on 6 February 2010 where the competing artists performed their songs live for the public.[7] Presentation videos for each entry were also recorded between 6 and 19 February 2010 and released between 20 February and 5 March 2010.

The national final took place on 6 March 2010 at the Globus Circus Arena in Bucharest, hosted by Horia Brenciu and Valentina Pelinel. Sixteen songs competed and the winner, "Playing with Fire" performed by Paula Seling & Ovi, was determined by the 50/50 combination of the votes from regional jury panels and public televoting. Four regional juries in Craiova, Cluj, Iaşi and Timișoara consisting of five members each awarded one set of 1–8, 10 and 12 points, with a fifth jury in Bucharest consisting of eleven members awarding another set of 1–8, 10 and 12 points. The summation of the two jury points had produced an overall ranking that was converted to 1–8, 10 and 12 points. The public had the opportunity to submit their vote during a 30-minute voting window where only one free vote could be cast per phone number. The top ten songs as ranked by the televote received 1–8, 10 and 12 points.[7]

Shortly after "Playing with Fire" won Selecţia Naţională 2010 there were reports that the song, performed by Paula Seling and Ovi, aka Ovi Cernăuţeanu, was registered in Norway as being co-written by a Norwegian composer, Simen Eriksrud, which would have broken TVR regulations as participants and songwriters must all be Romanian. This was followed by calls for the song to be disqualified and a new national final held to select another song. Eriksrud, also Ovi's producer, confirmed that Ovi was the only songwriter, with Eriksrud and Ovi only sharing publishing rights as his producer.[8]

Marina Almasan, the Romanian Head of Delegation, confirmed on 11 March that Ovi was the only writer of the song, after consulting with TONO, the Norwegian copyright association, Ovi's record label, and the Romanian Copyright Office.[9]

Paula and Ovi are currently taking part in an extensive European promotion tour before Eurovision, promoting their Eurovision song "Playing with Fire", in March and April 2010. The duo's first locations were Chişinău, Moldova, where they appeared on the Muz-TV music channel, going on then to Belgium, Portugal and Greece.[10] In between promotion the duo shot scenes in the medieval city of Alba Iulia in Romania and in Vienna, Austria for the music video of "Playing with Fire". The video employs 3D technology, the first such use of the technology in a Eurovision music video. The video was released in April 2010.[11][12][13]

The duo's promotion continued into April, however due to the 2010 eruptions of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull, Ovi was unable to leave his home in Norway after the closure of Norwegian airspace due to volcanic ash in the aftermath of the eruptions. As such, Paula toured by herself, giving TV appearances in Bulgaria and Macedonia. With the reopening of Norwegian airspace the duo were reunited in Turkey, where they appeared on the Beyaz Show talk show as well as a special Eurovision show, Eurovision 2010'a dogru (Towards Eurovision 2010) on TRT Müzik, appearing alongside the Greek entry Giorgos Alkaios and Friends.[14] The duo will also perform together at the UK Eurovision Preview Party in London on 2 May.[15][16]