Today, Romanian broadcaster TVR has announced via its official Eurovision social media channels that Selecţia Naţională will return in 2022 to select the Romanian entry for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Turin, Italy.
Submissions open Friday
Whilst TVR will announce the full rules of the competition shortly, the announcement reveals that the submissions process for the national selection will open on Friday, November 26th and close on Sunday, December 19th. Whilst yet to be confirmed, this also suggests that Romania will be reverting back to a fully open selection in contrast to that of 2020 when TVR internally selected ROXEN and only the song was chosen via a televised selection show.
An unsuccessful formula change in 2020 and 2021
Selecţia Naţională had chosen both the artist and song for Romania since the nation’s Eurovision debut in 1993. However, after an impressive run of qualifications since the introduction of the semi-final in 2004, The Humans and Ester Peony failed to take Romania to the final in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Thus, TVR changed their formula in 2020 by internally selecting ROXEN, whilst Selecţia Naţională chose just the song in which “Alcohol You” was victorious. Then, following the 2020 contest’s cancellation, TVR internally selected the complete 2021 entry, re-selected ROXEN with a new entry “Amnesia”. Despite pre-contest support, “Amnesia” became Romania’s third consecutive non-qualification. Indeed, this is likely to have prompted TVR to return to their previous selection method.
Romania’s best Eurovision results remain two third-place finishes earned by Luminița Anghel and Sistem’s “Let Me Try” in 2005 and Paula Seling & Ovi’s “Playing With Fire” in 2010. In total, Romania has achieved six top ten finishes in their Eurovision history, the most recent being Ilinca & Alex Florea’s “Yodel It!” in 2017.
Are you excited Selecţia Naţională seems to be returning in its original format? Let us know in the comments below!
