Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Selecția Națională 2019 was the national final organised by TVR and its regional studios in order to select Romania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. As a consent from a conference regarding 2018's "failure", changes were implemented for Romania's next Eurovision participation.[4] The competition consisted of three shows: two semi-finals and a final featuring twelve songs to be held on 27 January, 10 February and 17 February 2019, respectively. Under the slogan Împlineşte visul! (Fulfill the dream!) and sponsored by Ford, the competition took place in different cities across Romania.[5][6] All shows were hosted by Ilinca Avram and Aurelian Temișan. All shows were televised on TVR1, TVR HD, TVRi and in Moldova via the channel TVR Moldova as well as online via the broadcaster's streaming service TVR+ and YouTube.

TVR opened a submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries between 9 November 2018 and 10 December 2018. The broadcaster received 126 submissions after the submission deadline passed.[5][7] An expert committee reviewed the received submissions. Each juror on the committee rated each song between 1 (lowest) and 10 (highest) based on criteria such as the melodic harmony and structure of the song, the orchestral arrangement, originality and stylistic diversity of the composition and sound and voice quality.[8] After the combination of the jury votes, the top twenty-four entries that scored the highest were selected for the national final. The competing entries were announced on 20 December 2018. Among the competing artists were Dan Bittman, who previously represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994, as well as Mihai, who previously represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006.

The members of the expert committee that selected the twenty-four entries were:[5]

On 2 January 2019, Dan Bittman and his song "Pierd" was withdrawn from the competition due to conflicting schedules and replaced with the songs "Army of Love" performed by Bella Santiago and "Renegades" performed by Linda Teodosiu as wildcards after TVR opened an additional submission period between 8 and 10 January 2019, during which the broadcaster received 9 submissions.[9][10][11] On 12 January 2019, Mihai and his song "Baya" was withdrawn from the competition due to the unclear organization of the competition as well as allegedly "favoured" contestants.[12] On 8 February 2019, Xandra and her song "Independent" was withdrawn from the competition.[13]

The first semi-final took place on 27 January 2019 at the Sala Polivalentă in Iași. Eleven songs competed and six qualified to the final.[39] A jury panel first selected five songs to advance: "We Are the Ones" performed by Claudiu Mirea, "Army of Love" performed by Bella Santiago, "Destin" performed by Trooper, "Without You (Sin ti)" performed by Dya and Lucian Colareza and "Skyscraper" performed by Teodora Dinu. The members of the jury panel that voted during the first semi-final were: Adi Cristescu (singer, composer), Mihai Georgescu (singer-songwriter), Crina Mardare (vocal coach), Andy Platon (composer, producer, DJ) and Mugurel Vrabete (musician).[40] The remaining six entries then faced a public televote which determined an additional qualifier: "Underground" performed by Vaida.[41][42]

The second semi-final took place on 10 February 2019 at the Sala Sporturilor "Victoria" in Arad. Twelve songs competed and six qualified to the final.[43] A jury panel first selected five songs to advance: "Dear Father" performed by Laura Bretan, "Renegades" performed by Linda Teodosiu, "On a Sunday" performed by Ester Peony, "Daina" performed by Letiția Moisescu and Sensibil Balkan and "Right Now" performed by Olivier Kaye. The members of the jury panel that voted during the second semi-final were: Adi Cristescu (singer, composer), Mihai Georgescu (singer-songwriter), Crina Mardare (vocal coach), Andy Platon (composer, producer, DJ) and Mugurel Vrabete (musician).[40] The remaining seven entries then faced a public televote which determined an additional qualifier: "Your Journey" performed by Aldo Blaga.[41][42]

The final took place on 17 February 2019 at the Sala Polivalentă in Bucharest.[44] Twelve songs competed and the winner, "On a Sunday" performed by Ester Peony, was determined by the combination of the votes from a six-member international jury panel (6/7) and public televoting (1/7).[45] Each member of the jury voted by assigning scores from 1–8, 10 and 12 points to their preferred songs. The members of the jury were William Lee Adams (American journalist, Wiwibloggs editor), Deban Aderemi (British composer, vlogger, Wiwibloggs editor), Alex Calancea (Moldovan artist, producer, composer), Șerban Cazan (Romanian producer for HaHaHa Production), Tali Eshkoli (Israeli entrepreneur, show producer, content editor) and Emmelie de Forest (Danish singer, Eurovision Song Contest 2013 winner).[46] The public had the opportunity to submit their vote during a 30-minute voting window where only one vote could be cast per phone number. The top ten songs as ranked by the televote received 1–8, 10 and 12 points.[41] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval acts featured performances by Emmelie de Forest performing the songs "Sanctuary" and "Only Teardrops", Eurovision Song Contest 2018 winner Netta Barzilai performing the songs "Toy" and "Bassa Sababa", as well as Golden Stag Festival 2018 winner Inis Neziri performing the songs "Piedestal" and "Man's World".[6]

Romania performed sixth in the second semi-final, following the entry from Latvia and preceding the entry from Denmark. At the end of the show, Romania was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Romania placed thirteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 71 points: 24 points from the televoting and 47 points from the juries.

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.[49]

The following five members comprised the Romanian jury:[49]

• Liana Stanciu – Chairperson – presenter
• Ozana Barabancea – artist, singer
• Monica Anghel – artist, singer, represented Romania in the 2002 contest
• Andrei Kerestely – producer, somposer
• Bogdan Pavlică – music journalist

Split voting results from Romania (Semi-final 2)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		O. Barabancea	L. Stanciu	M. Anghel	A. Kerestely	B. Pavlică	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Armenia	17	8	11	9	12	13		14
02	Ireland	16	12	9	17	15	16		16
03	Moldova	2	1	2	5	6	1	12	1	12
04	Switzerland	15	5	12	7	7	8	3	4	7
05	Latvia	14	14	13	15	9	15		15
06	Romania
07	Denmark	13	16	14	16	16	17		13
08	Sweden	12	6	15	13	3	7	4	10	1
09	Austria	3	15	16	8	13	10	1	17
10	Croatia	11	9	8	14	11	12		11
11	Malta	10	7	10	4	5	6	5	9	2
12	Lithuania	9	13	7	10	10	11		12
13	Russia	4	3	3	12	4	5	6	3	8
14	Albania	5	11	6	11	14	9	2	8	3
15	Norway	8	17	17	6	17	14		6	5
16	Netherlands	7	2	5	2	2	3	8	5	6
17	North Macedonia	1	10	1	1	8	2	10	7	4
18	Azerbaijan	6	4	4	3	1	4	7	2	10

Split voting results from Romania (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		O. Barabancea	L. Stanciu	M. Anghel	A. Kerestely	B. Pavlică	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Malta	12	10	10	11	9	11		22
02	Albania	4	8	8	16	10	9	2	21
03	Czech Republic	2	7	7	7	2	3	8	20
04	Germany	22	18	11	20	20	20		23
05	Russia	13	4	2	9	5	5	6	4	7
06	Denmark	14	17	12	21	17	17		13
07	San Marino	23	25	25	26	25	26		26
08	North Macedonia	6	21	1	1	16	4	7	17
09	Sweden	16	6	13	6	6	10	1	14
10	Slovenia	9	26	16	23	22	18		19
11	Cyprus	10	9	17	19	8	13		18
12	Netherlands	11	3	18	5	4	6	5	1	12
13	Greece	24	11	19	17	24	21		15
14	Israel	7	13	9	12	26	12		8	3
15	Norway	17	16	20	4	19	14		7	4
16	United Kingdom	20	23	21	18	21	25		25
17	Iceland	25	24	26	25	14	24		6	5
18	Estonia	15	20	14	14	18	19		16
19	Belarus	18	19	15	22	15	22		24
20	Azerbaijan	3	1	6	3	1	2	10	5	6
21	France	26	22	24	13	7	15		10	1
22	Italy	19	12	22	15	11	16		3	8
23	Serbia	5	15	4	8	13	8	3	11
24	Switzerland	8	5	5	10	12	7	4	2	10
25	Australia	1	2	3	2	3	1	12	9	2
26	Spain	21	14	23	24	23	23		12