Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012

In early January 2012, Romania's participation remained unconfirmed. The online portal of Romanian newspaper Cotidianul assumed that Romania was not going to enter the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest due the lack of foundation, but TVR officials did not confirm this claim.[3] On 21 January 2012, the broadcaster confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, pressuring the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to lower the entry fee and stating that "participation was only possible if 40% of all the costs that may occur could be funded through sponsorship".[4][5] It was later announced that TVR had attempted to selected the artist for the 2012 contest internally by approaching the worldwide-topping singer Inna, however she declined due to commitments to her I Am the Club Rocker Tour for promoting her album under the same name.[6][7]

Logo of Selecția Națională 2012

Selecția Națională 2012 was the national final organised by TVR in order to select Romania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. The winner of the national final was determined through the 50/50 combination of votes from a jury panel and a public televote. The competition was televised on TVR1, TVRi and online via the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.[8]

TVR opened a submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries between 6 February 2012 and 23 February 2012, with a wishlist of 84 artists also being published to encourage composers to write songs for them.[9] An expert committee reviewed the received submissions on 28 February 2012. The broadcaster received 109 submissions after the submission deadline passed, of which 97 were eligible for consideration. Fifteen entries were selected for the national final. For the 2012 contest, the committee reserved the right to change the initial performer of each selected entry. Should this be the case, composers would have to submit the final version of their songs with the new performers. The competing entries were announced on 29 February 2012.[10][11]

The national final took place on 10 March 2012 at the TVR studios in Bucharest, hosted by Iulia Pârlea and Constantin Trofin.[13] Fifteen songs competed and the winner, "Zaleilah" performed by Mandinga, was determined by the 50/50 combination of the votes from a jury panel and public televoting. Each member of the jury voted by assigning scores from 1–8, 10 and 12 points to their preferred songs. The summation of the 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 voting window and the top ten songs as ranked by the televote received 1–8, 10 and 12 points. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval acts featured performances by 2012 French Eurovision entrant Anggun and 2012 Irish Eurovision entrants Jedward.

• In the Semi-final 1 Romania came 3rd with 120 points: the public awarded Romania 2nd place with 132 points and the jury awarded 5th place with 87 points.[16]
• In the Final Romania came 12th with 71 points: the public awarded Romania 7th place with 117 points and the jury awarded 20th place with 53 points.[16]