As the sad news broke that Romania wouldn’t be able to participate in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, Mihai Trăistariu expressed once more the high amount he would have paid to the Eurovision project had Romania chosen him, but would anything have been different had TVR had his money?
Mihai Trăistariu represented Romania at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006 where he came fourth with the song Tornerò. It gained him a fan base around Europe and expectations were high when he in the autumn announced a bit for Eurovision 2016. He declared himself willing to put a lot of money into it, and he told how he had mortgaged his house to the top in order to pay for the videos made to his song Paradisio. With that song he made it to the final in Romania, but fans were disappointed. They didn’t think it matched their high expectations, and in the final he finished 5th out of 6 participants.
Yesterday when TVR was expelled from EBU’s services and as such unable to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest, Mihai posted the following: “Pfffff … E oficial ! Romania a fost exclusa de la Eurovision din cauza datoriilor prea mari facute de Tvr de-a lungul anilor ! Hm … Si cand ma gandesc ca eram dispus sa cheltui peste 100.000 de euro pentru show-ul din Suedia, in caz ca Paradisio ar fi castigat ! Acum, concluzia e una singura : ” Universul lucreaza pentru mine … (happy smiley)”
This translates to “Romania has been excluded from the Eurovision Song Contest due to TVR debts which have been accumulated along the last years. Hmm… I’m just thinking of that I would had paid 100.000€ for the show in Sweden if Paradisio had won. There can be only one conclusion: The universe is supporting me.”
That lead to speculations about whether or not Romania would have been able to take part, had Mihai paid all the expenses for him and his team to go to Stockholm to represent Romania instead of Ovidiu Anton. But no, that is not the case. As Miahi says, and which the European Broadcasting Union made very clear then this is about the debt which the Romanian broadcaster TVR owes the EBU, a debt which goes back until 2007 – and which they since 2010 have been trying to resolve with Romania. EBU had requested to the Finance Minister of Romania that a total of 10 million Swiss Franc (14,5 million euros) would be paid by the 20th of April. TVR’s debt is at 16 million Swiss Franc and a plan for the payment of the remaining amount would have to be included. The Romanian broadcaster nor the state paid, and no plan was presented. As such there was no other way around it than to exclude the country from all EBU member services which includes the Eurovision Song Contest.
Had Mihai won the Romanian final, he would have been the one who was now in Ovidiu Anton’s situation and not able to represent his country at Eurovision despite the many preparations already made, and in Mihai’s case his 100.000 euros would have been lost. He couldn’t have kept Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest this year unless he was able to pay the 10 million Swiss Franc as requested by EBU. We don’t assume that to be case and as such we conclude that he wouldn’t have been able to save Romania’s 2016 participation. So yes, Miahi have every reason to be happy that he universe is on his side as his money would have been lost.
