A total of 24 songs will compete in the two semi finals of Selecția Națională 2019. After the latest announcement the Romanian national broadcaster, TVR, the first semi final will include 11 contestants while the 2nd semi final 13.
Although the initial plan was to break up the 24 candidates in two semi final of 12 acts , TVR announced that Laura Bretan will move back to the 2nd semi final developing the semi final allocation as following:
The acts to compete on the 1st semi final on January 27 are:
The four first songs according to the national jury’s voting will win the tickets directly ti the final. After the public will vote for two more spots from the remaining 8 acts.
The six songs from each semi final will form the 12 finalists of Selecția Națională 2019 final. The 12 hopefuls will compete on February 17 and battle for the right to represent Romania in Tel Aviv. In the final the result will be determined by an international jury voting and public vote.
The Eurovision Story So Far
Romania made its first attempt to compete in the contest back in 1993 for the Eurovision Song Contest. After competing in the preliminary semi-final in Slovenia with Dida Dragan, failed to win one of the three spots that led to the Eurovision stage in Millstreet, Ireland
Romania officially debuted at the the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 with Dan Bitman and has participatted a total of 22 times since then. Its best reuslts were scored in 2005 with Luminita Anghel and in 2010 with the duo Paula Seling & Ovi achieving in both cases the honorable 3rd place in the Grand Final.
In 2016 the country received a penalty by the EBU due to its broadcaster’s overdue debt and was forced to withdraw from the contest, although it had chosen its Eurovision entry and act for Stockholm.
In 2018 Romanian band The Humans won the Selecţia Naţională and performed Goodbye on the stage of Altice Arena in Lisbon. For the first time in its history the country didn’t make it to the final, breaking a record of qualifying to each grand final since the semi finals were introduced.