Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

Romania participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 after having been forced to take a one-year break in 2016 when they got disqualified.[1][2] The country was represented with the song "Yodel It!" written by Mihai Alexandru and Alexandra Niculae. The song is performed by Ilinca and Alex Florea. The nation's broadcaster, Televiziunea Română (TVR), organised the Selecția Națională 2017, a preselection show, in order to select the Romanian entry for the 2017 contest held in Kyiv, Ukraine. "Yodel It!" performed by Ilinca and Alex Florea emerged as the winner after gaining the most votes from the televoting.[3]

Eurovision Song Contest 2017
Country Romania
National selection
Selection processSelecția Națională 2017
Selection date(s)Audition stage:
5–11 February 2017
Semi-final:
26 February 2017
Final:
5 March 2017
Selected entrantIlinca feat. Alex Florea
Selected song"Yodel It!"
Selected songwriter(s)
  • Mihai Alexandru
  • Alexandra Niculae
Finals performance
Semi-final resultQualified (6th, 174 points)
Final result7th, 282 points
Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2016 • 2017 • 2018►

Background
Main article: Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2017 Contest, Romania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest seventeen times since its first entry in 1994.[4] Its highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been third place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 2005 with the song "Let Me Try" performed by Luminița Anghel and Sistem and in 2010 with the song "Playing with Fire" performed by Paula Seling and Ovi. To this point, Romania has qualified to the final on every occasion that they participated since the introduction of semi-finals to the format of the contest in 2004. In 2015, "De la capăt" by band Voltaj placed 15th in the final.[4] In 2016, their entry, "Moment of Silence" by Ovidiu Anton, was forcibly withdrawn from competition shortly before the contest due to repeated non-payment of debts by Televiziunea Română (TVR) to the EBU, though it remained on the official album.

Before Eurovision

Selecția Națională 2017

Selecția Națională 2017 was the national final organised by TVR in order to select Romania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The competition consisted of two shows: a semi-final featuring fifteen songs and a final featuring ten songs to be held on 26 February and 5 March 2017, respectively. Both shows took place at the Studioul Pangratti in Bucharest and were hosted by Iuliana Tudor and Dan Helciug with Ioana Voicu hosting segments from the green room.[5] The two shows were televised on TVR1, TVR HD, TVRi as well as online via the broadcaster's streaming service TVR+ and YouTube. The two shows were also broadcast in Moldova via the channel TVR Moldova. The official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv provided an online stream for the final of the competition.

Competing entries

TVR opened a submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries between 20 December 2016 and 22 January 2017. The broadcaster received 84 submissions after the submission deadline passed.[6] 72 entrants participated in auditions at the TVR Studio 3 in Bucharest in front of an expert committee between 27 and 29 January 2017.[7] The auditions were later broadcast on TVR2, TVR HD, TVRi and TVR Moldova between 5 and 11 February 2017.[8] From the auditions, fifteen entries were selected for the national final. "I Know", written by Da Beat Freakz and to have been performed by Lora, was originally selected but later withdrawn from the competition and replaced with the song "Două sticle" performed by Zanga. TVR hosted a presentation show on 12 February 2017 where the competing entries were announced.[9] Among the competing artists was MIHAI, who previously represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006.

Artist Song (English translation) Songwriter(s)
Alexandra Crăescu "Hope" Carlos Manuel De Abreu Fernandes
Ana-Maria Mirică "Spune-mi tu" (Tell me) Liviu Elekes, Roxana Elekes
Cristina Vasiu "Set the Skies on Fire" Jonas Thander, Calle Kindbom, Tony Sánchez-Ohlsson
D-lema "Adventure" Alex Luft, Denisa Demian
Eduard Santha "Wild Child" Eduard Santha, Marius Alexandru Pop
Elizé & No Stress "Fără bariere" (Without barriers) Vladimir Pocorschi, Eliza Manda
Ilinca feat. Alex Florea "Yodel It!" Mihai Alexandru, Alexandra Niculae
Instinct "Petale" (Petals) Daniel Alexandrescu, Vlad Alecu, Theea Eliza Miculescu
Maxim feat. Nicolae Voiculeț "Adu-ți aminte" (Remember) Adrian Sînă, Nicolae Voiculeț, Anca Cojocaru, Andrei Vitan
MIHAI "I Won't Surrender" Mihai Trăistariu, Michael James Down, Primož Poglajen, Niklas Hast
Ramona Nerra "Save Me" Ramona Nerra, Terri Bjerre, Toddi Reed
Tavi Colen & Emma "We Own the Night" Anastasia Sandu, Cătălin Tuță-Popescu
Tudor Turcu "Limitless" Bogdan Tomoșoiu, Tudor Turcu, Marius Marin
Xandra "Walk On By" Jonas Gladnikoff, Will Taylor
Zanga "Două sticle" (Two bottles) Alexandra Penciu

Semi-final

The semi-final took place on 26 February 2017.[10] Fifteen songs competed and a jury panel selected ten songs to qualify to the final. The members of the jury panel that voted during the semi-final were: Andrei Tudor (composer), Paula Seling (singer, represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 and 2014), Ovi (singer-songwriter, represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 and 2014), Luminița Anghel (singer, represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005) and Adrian Romcescu (composer, conductor).[11]

Semi-final – 26 February 2017
Draw Artist Song Jury vote[12] Total Place
A. Tudor P. Seling Ovi L. Anghel A. Romcescu
1 Elizé & No Stress "Fără bariere" 232 7 11
2 Cristina Vasiu "Set the Skies on Fire" 77477 32 4
3 Tudor Turcu "Limitless" 51 6 12
4 Ramona Nerra "Save Me" 31366 19 6
5 Instinct "Petale" 63555 24 5
6 Eduard Santha "Wild Child" 2674 19 7
7 Tavi Colen & Emma "We Own the Night" 1124 8 9
8 Zanga "Două sticle" 5 5 13
9 Ilinca feat. Alex Florea "Yodel It!" 1212121212 60 1
10 Alexandra Crăescu "Hope" 41 5 14
11 Maxim feat. Nicolae Voiculeț "Adu-ți aminte" 26 8 8
12 D-lema "Adventure" 0 15
13 MIHAI "I Won't Surrender" 1081088 44 3
14 Ana-Maria Mirică "Spune-mi tu" 43 7 10
15 Xandra "Walk On By" 81081010 46 2

Final

The final took place on 5 March 2017. Ten songs competed and the winner, "Yodel It!" performed by Ilinca feat. Alex Florea, was selected exclusively by public televoting.[13] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval acts featured performances by 2017 Spanish Eurovision entrant Manel Navarro, 2017 Moldovan Eurovision entrants SunStroke Project, 2017 Swiss Eurovision entrants Timebelle as well as performances by ABBA tribute band Arrival.[14]

Final – 5 March 2017
Draw Artist Song Televote Place
1Ana-Maria Mirică"Spune-mi tu"91310
2Ilinca feat. Alex Florea"Yodel It!"10,3771
3Eduard Santha"Wild Child"1,3318
4Xandra"Walk On By"2,5565
5MIHAI"I Won't Surrender"5,2012
6Maxim feat. Nicolae Voiculeț"Adu-ți aminte"2,8014
7Tavi Colen & Emma"We Own the Night"1,1289
8Instinct"Petale"3,0633
9Ramona Nerra"Save Me"2,1027
10Cristina Vasiu"Set the Skies on Fire"2,2226

Promotion

Ilinca and Alex Florea made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Yodel It!" as the Romanian Eurovision entry. On 2 April, they performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French. Between 3 and 6 April, they took part in promotional activities in Tel Aviv, Israel where he performed during the Israel Calling event held at the Ha'teatron venue.[15][16] On 8 April, they performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Selma Björnsdóttir.[17] On 15 April, they performed during the Eurovision Spain Pre-Party, which was held at the Sala La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain.[18]

At Eurovision
Ilinca and Alex Florea during a press meet and greet

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.[19] On 31 January 2017, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Romania was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 11 May 2017, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[20]

Once all the competing songs for the 2017 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Originally, Romania was set to perform in position 6, following the entry from Malta and before the entry from the Netherlands.[21] However, following Russia's withdrawal from the contest on 13 April and subsequent removal from the running order of the second semi-final, Romania's performing position shifted to 5.[22]

Semi-final

The singers' concept for their stage show was revealed during their first rehearsal.[23] It commences with a number of large toy soldiers drumming in the background, whereon further colorful imagery is displayed during the rest of the performance, including "colourful butterflies, blue clouds, white roses, blue musical notes and images flying all over the place" along with the letters YODEL IT in different tones; the singers are performing in a yellow circle. At the end of the performance, Florea appears on a glittery cannon originally planned to shoot out colorful objects—which according to the singer would have represented an "explosion of love and happiness"[24]—following which a second cannon is introduced and is also displayed in the background.[25] Florea's brother provided backing vocals. It was later revealed that Romania placed sixth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 174 points: 148 points from the televoting and 26 points from the juries.

Points awarded to Romania
Points awarded to Romania (semi-final 2)[26]
Televote
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Jury
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Points awarded to Romania (final)[26]
Televote
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Jury
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Points awarded by Romania

Jury members

The following five members comprised the Romanian jury: [27]

Split voting results
Split voting results from Romania (Semi-final 2)
Draw Country Jury Televote
L. Anghel M. Trăistariu T. Colen P. Seling C. Ouatu Average Rank Points Rank Points
01 Serbia1110119171214
02 Austria585836574
03 Macedonia1512131491311
04 Malta8312101610115
05 Romania
06 Netherlands2112111212
07 Hungary121416131314112
08 Denmark1631221013
09 Ireland134106118356
10 San Marino16171717121717
11 Croatia356444765
12 Norway91171189292
13  Switzerland6925756210
14 Belarus1013971011101
15 Bulgaria424363838
16 Lithuania14161415141516
17 Estonia17151516151683
18 Israel7781257447
Split voting results from Romania (final)
Draw Country Jury Televote
L. Anghel M. Trăistariu T. Colen P. Seling C. Ouatu Average Rank Points Rank Points
01 Israel71491459212
02 Poland15212117171925
03 Belarus1217149161421
04 Austria81312131010117
05 Armenia23201323252213
06 Netherlands3211211218
07 Moldova2124338112
08 Hungary10112271112210
09 Italy14182019131656
10 Denmark587396523
11 Portugal956545647
12 Azerbaijan19161616231820
13 Croatia61011888383
14 Australia11481277416
15 Greece221919241820101
16 Spain20252525222422
17 Norway13121010121114
18 United Kingdom1861515151519
19 Cyprus16152318141711
20 Romania
21 Germany24221721192115
22 Ukraine21241820212324
23 Belgium179511201365
24 Sweden474664792
25 Bulgaria1332121038
26 France25232422242574

References
  1. Cobb, Ryan (21 September 2016). "Romania submit application to participate in Eurovision 2017". EscXtra.com. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  2. Nathan Stella (13 October 2016). "Romania can participate in Eurovision 2017!". escbubble.com. ESCBubble.
  3. Jordan, Paul (6 March 2017). "Ilinca and Alex are ready to 'Yodel It' for Romania in Kyiv". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  4. "Romania Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  5. "Iuliana Tudor și Dan Helciug prezintă show-urile finale Eurovision România" (in Romanian). TVR. 17 February 2017.
  6. Weaver, Jessica (3 January 2017). "Romania: 84 submissions for Selecția Națională 2017". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  7. "Concurenţii calificaţi în preselecţia Eurovision România 2017 – Eurovision România". Eurovision.tvr.ro. 20 June 2014. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  8. Laufer, Gil (26 January 2017). "Romania: Upcoming weekend of auditions for Selecția Națională 2017". Esctoday.
  9. Honciuc, Bogdan (12 February 2017). "SELECTIA NATIONALA 2017: JURY PICKS 15 SEMI-FINALISTS FOR ROMANIA". wiwibloggs.com. Wiwibloggs.
  10. "Semifinaliștii Eurovision România au făcut show pe scena Berăriei H" (in Romanian). TVR. 20 February 2017.
  11. "Iuliana Tudor şi Dan Helciug prezintă show-urile finale Eurovision România". Adevarul.ro. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  12. acum 5 zile. "Clasamentul semifinalei Eurovision România 2017: cum a votat fiecare membru al juriului - ce piesă a obţinut punctaj maxim şi care niciun punct". Adevarul.ro. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  13. "Eurovision 2017 Romania. Cine ne reprezintă la Kiev" [Eurovision 2017 Romania. Who represents us a Kyiv] (in Romanian). Antena 3. 5 March 2017. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  14. "Timebelle & Sunstroke Project Announced As Guest Performers". Eurovoix.com. 17 February 2017.
  15. Kavaler, Ron (22 March 2017). "ISRAEL CALLING! EUROVISION PROMO EVENT SET FOR APRIL 3 TO 6". wiwibloggs.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  16. Laufer, Gil (5 April 2017). "Tonight: Israel Calling 2017 to be held with 28 participating countries". esctoday.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  17. Jordan, Paul (29 March 2017). "Eurovision in Concert sets a new record with 33 acts". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  18. Fuster, Luis (1 April 2017). "MADRID CALLING! 19 ACTS WILL TAKE PART IN EUROVISION SPAIN PRE-PARTY". wiwibloggs.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  19. Jordan, Paul (25 January 2017). "Semi-Final Allocation draw to take place in Kyiv". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  20. Jordan, Paul (31 January 2017). "Results of the Semi-Final Allocation Draw". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  21. Jordan, Paul (31 March 2017). "Semi-Final running order for Eurovision 2017 revealed". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  22. "EBU: "Russia no longer able to take part in Eurovision 2017"". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 22 April 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  23. Ko, Anthony (18 April 2017). "Eurovision 2017: Full rehearsal schedule published". Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  24. Kryvinchuk, Yullia (2 May 2017). "Ilinca and Alex from Romania: "Yodeling is a very feel-good thing"". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
  25. Outerson, Michael (2 May 2017). "Ilinca ft. Alex Florea, OG3NE, Joci Pápai, Anja and Brendan Murray first rehearsals". EuroVisionary. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
  26. "Kyiv 2017 – Eurovision Song Contest Kyiv 2017". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
  27. Jordan, Paul (29 April 2017). "Who will be the expert jurors for Eurovision 2017?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
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