The Romanian national final, Selecţia Naţională, will take place on February 11th next year to choose Romania’s next Eurovision entry, TVR reports.
The next Romanian entry will be chosen through a national final, following their confirmation in September. A national final is the usual state of affairs in Romania, and Selecția Națională has run on every year they have entered the contest excepting in 2021, and in 2020, where Roxen was internally selected as the artist and a smaller Selecția Națională was run to choose her song.
The full selection rules are outlined as here (in Romanian), so here follows a short summary of the most relevant points for a wider audience:
The entry period for interested artists will be from 14th November to 11th December. An artist entering will have to submit a musical recording, two video recordings, and other necessary materials, and the song must adhere to all the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest. One rule to note is the tracks do not have to have a chosen performer and may be sung by a demo singer. If an entry chooses this route, the organisers will propose a performer for the track.
From 14th to 16th December, a preselection event will take place with the entries going before a preselection jury. This jury will choose 12 songs to advance to the next stage. These results will be published on TVR’s site and sent to press no later than 17th December.
The final round of Selecţia Naţională will take place on 11th February. This will be a single television and online show where all 12 pieces will be performed live. The winning song will be decided exclusively through a public televote. The song with the highest number of votes will be the winner and will represent Romania at Liverpool 2023.
Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest
Romania have traditionally been a strong performer in the Eurovision Song Contest. Prior to 2018, they were one of a handful of countries that had never failed to qualify in the modern semi-final system from 2004 onwards. They had scored bronze-medal positions in 2005 and 2010 with Luminița Anghel and Sistem, and Paula Seling and Ovi respectively.
However, they have recently had a change of fortunes, experiencing three non-qualifiers in 2018, 2019 and 2021. This was changed again when their entrant for 2022, WRS, returned Romania to the final, placing 18th with 65 points.
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