In December 2023, the EBU announced the full list of countries participating in Eurovision 2024, in which Romania was notably not included. At the time, they were not confirmed to participate, but were given some extra time to make a decision. On 25 January, Romanian broadcaster TVR issued a statement confirming they will not be present in Eurovision this year.
Romania’s participation in 2024 was already unsure, following a bad result in 2023 (Theodor Andrei’s “DGT (Off and On)” was tied for last place) and statements on dubious financial management by the broadcaster. TVR has now announced that their Board of Directors made the decision not to participate, as a result of “financial constraints and the desire to represent Romania at a high level of performance”. Five members of the Board of Directors voted against participating, four voted for participating, and four members abstained from voting. On the same day, the Board of Directions approved the annual budget for the budget for SRTv (Romanian Television Society), which does not contain sufficient funds to guarantee Romania’s participation in Eurovision. Instead, RTV has chosen to direct money towards other large projects, including broadcasting the Summer Olympics in Paris, investments in the news production system, and “other long-delayed modernisation projects”. The broadcaster does not exclude participation in future editions.
Romania’s results in Eurovision in the past years had been disappointing. In 2016, Romania was disqualified after not paying the full participation fee to the EBU, despite already having selected a song. In the years after that, the country only qualified for the final twice: in 2017, with Ilinca and Alex Florea’s “Yodel It!”, and in 2022, with “Llámame” performed by Wrs.
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