After an interesting final in Baia Mare, Romania has finally chosen its representative for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm. Ovidiu Anton is going to compete for the country on the 12th of May in the second semi-final of the competition in Sweden.
Selecția Națională, Romania’s national selection for Eurovision 2016, kicked off on Friday, when 6 acts made it through to today’s final in Baia Mare. The following acts got their ticket for the show tonight:
The songs
01. Florena – Behind The Shadows
The just 16-year old singer opened the show impressively. Apart from her vocals, which were on point during the full three minutes, she also came up with a memorable show, consisting of smoke and light effects on the screen behind her. All these elements supported the mystical atmosphere of her pop-ballad Behind The Shadows. In fact Florena, a very likeable and usually shy person, became a real performer in the moment she entered the stage in Baia Mare.
02. Doru Tudoruț & Irina Baianț – The Voice
The two singers also worked with projections on the screen behind them, but mainly relied on the interesting rhythmical change within their Eurovision wannabe entry. The song starts as a slow ballad and changes into an up-tempo Europop song after 2 minutes. The mixture of these different styles was criticized by the national jury, the song not being understandable for the large audience according to the 5 jury members. Even though, this aspect of The Voice makes it memorable and outstanding.
03. Dreamwalkers – Let It Shine
The Romanian boyband was the only hopeful to compete with a typical Eurovision song. Their ballad has a slow build-up until it comes to the climax in the end of the song. The singers did not add a real show to their performance, relying completely on the quality of their song. This ballad was the second favourite of the Romanian jury back in Friday’s semi final and at the same time the most surprising qualifier according to the reactions of various fans across social media.
04. Vanotek ft. The Code & Georgian – I’m Coming Home
The radio-friendly pop song did not make the top 4 of the jury on Friday and was later on saved by the Romanian televoters. The 5 jury members criticized the fact that the song does not have a singable chorus and therefore would not have a big chances to get a good result in Stockholm. In contrast to the experts the audience seemed to like the commercial and modern pop song and pushed it through to the final show.
05. Ovidiu Anton – Moment Of Silence
The athem-like rock song was the jury favourite in Friday’s semi final. According to the 5 members especially the powerful vocals of Ovidiu Anton makes it memorable and interesting. Live on stage, the singer was accompanied by several dancers who were thee to support the dramatic atmosphere of his national final entry. Additionally, Anton worked with black and white light on the screen behind him.
06. M I H A I – Paradisio
Going for a Eurovision comeback, Mihai probably had the most memorable show of all the contestants, working with dancers who were wearing completely black clothes and could only be identified because of the LED-light on their body. The Romanian singer was completely separated from his dancers and was only standing on the left hand side of the stage while the dancers were showing their part of the performance in the centre of it. The 5 jury members did not like this separation of the singer and the other elements of his show and therefore only placed him fourth in the semi.
The show
The show kicked of at 19:30 CET in the city of Baia Mare and was hosted by the presenters Cornel Ilie and Ioana Voicu respectively by Jo in the greenroom.
Apart from the performances of the 6 hopefuls, Selecția Națională also brought several interval acts live on its stage in the north of the country. Paula Seling who represented Romania at the 2010 and 2014 Eurovision Song Contest, in a duet with Ovi, opened the event, this time solo though. Lidia Isac, this years Moldovan Eurovision participant entertained as interval act. She competes in the first semi-final while Romania is in the second, so the exposure he is getting on Romanian TV won’t benefit her before in a possible final.
Additionally the jury members Randi, Zoli Toth, Horia Moculescun and Romania’s 2013 representative Cezar Ouatu performed 8 different songs live in Baia Mare during the voting period. The highlight was reached when Cezar brought Conchita Wurst’s winning song Rise Like a Phoenix on to the national final stage.
The result
The winner has been decided 100% by televote, during a voting period of about 60 minutes. In the end of a long night, finally Ovidiu Anton has been announced as the winner of Selecția Națională and further as Romania’s hopeful for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.
The full voting result:
| 1. Ovidiu Anton |
| 2. Vanotek ft. The Code & Georgian |
| 3. Florena |
| 4. Dreamwalkers |
| 5. M I H A I |
| 6. Doru Tudoruț & Irina Baianț |
Romania in Eurovision
In the past 5 years Romania has always finished in the middle of the Eurovision scoreboard. The last time the country could reach a place in the top ten dates back to 2010 when Paula Seling and Ovi finally came third with their song Playing With Fire.
Romania is well-known for interesting live performances on the Eurovision stage. The two earlier mentioned singers competed with two different and innovating types of pianos in their participations in 2010 respectively in 2014. Another example of Romania not being afraid to try something different could be Cezar’s Dracula show back in 2013.
These and 3 further Romanian acts can be seen in the highlight video down below. It sums up the recent history of the country in the contest and we mixed the Eurovision clips which some more rare performances which you might not have seen before. Enjoy watching:
