Romania was set to be represented at theEurovision Song Contest 2020 with the song "Alcohol You", written by Ionuț Armaș, Viky Red, andBreyan Isaac, and performed byRoxen. The Romanian participating broadcaster,Televiziunea Română (TVR), selected its entry through the national finalSelecția Națională 2020, after having previously selected the performer internally. TVR announced Roxen on 11 February 2020, while the national selection competition took place on 1 March.
Prior to the scheduled Eurovision Song Contest 2020, "Alcohol You" was promoted by a lyric video, while Roxen appeared on several native talk shows and radio stations. Romania was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which would have taken place on 12 May 2020. However, the contest was cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to the 2020 contest,Televiziunea Română (TVR) had participated in theEurovision Song Contest representing Romania 20 times since its first entry in1994. Its highest placing in the contest, to this point, had been third place, achieved on two occasions: in2005 with the song "Let Me Try" performed byLuminița Anghel and Sistem, and in2010 with the song "Playing with Fire" performed byPaula Seling andOvi. In2019, Romania failed to qualify to the final, placing 13th in the second semi-final with "On a Sunday" byEster Peony. This marked the second consecutive time that they failed to qualify to the final since the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, after2018.[1]
In September 2019, TVR confirmed its participation in the 2020 contest.[2] As of December 2019, the broadcaster was discussing the method to select a representing entry,[3] which evolved as the subject of online controversy since precise information surrounding its Eurovision participation had been given that time in preceding years. In addition, the mayors ofBaia Mare andBuzău claimed the cities were potential hosts of a national final that was yet to be confirmed by TVR.[4]
Logo for Romania's 2020 Eurovision participation, with the slogan "E altceva" (Romanian: "It's something different").
On 31 January 2020, TVR confirmed its collaboration with native labelGlobal Records for the selection of a Eurovision entry, citing their recent relevancy and success within Romania's music industry as reasons for the decision. Furthermore, it was announced that Liana Stanciu would return as the country'shead of delegation.[5] While Global Records was not remunerated, the project had cost TVR a reported €69,000.[6] A jury panel—consisting ofLuminița Anghel, Liviu Elekes, Dan Manoliu, Crina Mardare, Bogdan Păun, Lucian Ștefan and Andrei Tudor[7]—was hired to select Romania's representing artist out of the label's roster.[8][9] Having brought together several composers such asDavid Ciente,[10] a songwriting camp was organised in January 2020, with the five best-written songs being selected by music experts to proceed toSelecția Națională 2020.[8][9] The segmentDestinația Eurovision was aired by TVR, documenting the internal artist selection and songwriting camp.[9]
In an online interview two days after TVR's announcement, Global Records's manager Ștefan announced that a male and two female artists had been shortlisted to represent Romania at Eurovision;[11] they were later reported to be Cezar Gună,Diana V andRoxen.[12][13] The latter was revealed as Romania's representative on 11 February, and the competing songs were released on 21 February.[12][14] Roxen had risen to prominence in the country upon being featured on producerSickotoy's "You Don't Love Me" in 2019, which reached number three on theAirplay 100 chart and was playlisted in several other territories.[15][16]
Sala Sporturilor "Romeo Iamandi" inBuzău (pictured in 2010).
Selecția Națională 2020 was the national final format organised by TVR in order to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The competition consisted of five songs—"Alcohol You", "Beautiful Disaster", "Cherry Red", "Colors" and "Storm"—out of which the winner was determined by a 50/50 combination of votes from a jury panel and a public televote (the latter would decide the winning song in case of a tie).[8][9] The jury—consisting of Luminița Anghel, Crina Mardare, Alin Oprea, Edward Sanda and Andrei Tudor—awarded a set of points from five to zero, which was based on each member's individual set of votes from five to zero. The televoting was rendered down using the same scores.[17]
With an audience of around 200,000 viewers,[18]Selecția Națională was broadcast at 21:00 (EET) and hosted byElena Gheorghe andConnect-R at Sala Sporturilor "Romeo Iamandi" in Buzău. The hosts also served as interval acts alongsideLoreen,Sandro Nicolas,Ulrikke Brandstorp, Dora Gaitanovici andNatalia Gordienco.[7][19][20] Roxen's performances were directed by Bogdan Păun with the assistance of thedirector of photography Dan Manoliu, and made use of a circular stage and aLED screen sized around 300 square metres (3,200 sq ft).[7][19] CocoRico, Cotnari and Top Line were among the sponsors of the event,[17] while Buzău itself contributed with €200,000 towards it.[21] Writing forEurovision.de, Irving Wolther laudedSelecția Națională, calling it "so opulent that one might think that a future [Eurovision] winner is actually celebrating here".[22] The full results of the national final were:[23][24]
Prior toSelecția Națională, Roxen was promoted as Romania's Eurovision representative on various native talk shows and radio stations, occasionally performing one of the five songs.[25] Lyric videos to all entries were released onYouTube, eventually alongside "alternative" live versions (Crystal Freckles Session).[26] Additionally, Global Records released merchandise related to Roxen.[27] Upon selecting "Alcohol You" as the Romanian entry, Roxen performed it live onVirgin Radio Romania,[28] and appeared on multiple other Romanian radio stations to give interviews.[29]
The Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was originally scheduled to take place atRotterdam Ahoy inRotterdam, Netherlands and consist of two semi-finals on 12 and 14 May, and the final on 16 May 2020.[30] According to Eurovision rules, each country, except the host nation and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom), would have been required to qualify from one of two semi-finals to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final would have progressed to the final.[31][32][33] In January 2020, it was announced that Romania would be performing in the second half of the first semi-final of the contest.[34] However, on 18 March, theEuropean Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced the event's cancellation due to thepandemic of thecoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China and its spread to other countries.[35] Although TVR had considered sending "Alcohol You" to participate in theEurovision Song Contest 2021,[36] EBU announced soon after that entries intended for 2020 would not be eligible for the following year.[37] Roxen was nonetheless internally selected for 2021.[38]
Some of the broadcasters scheduled to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 have organised alternative competitions. Austria'sORF airedDer kleine Song Contest in April 2020, which saw every entry being assigned to one of three semi-finals. A jury consisting of ten singers that had representedAustria at Eurovision before was hired to rank each song; the best-placed in each semi-final advanced to the final round.[39] In the first semi-final on 14 April, "Alcohol You" placed seventh in a field of 14 participants, achieving 61 points.[40] The song also unsuccessfully took part inNorddeutscher Rundfunk'sEurovision 2020 – das deutsche Finale andSveriges Television'sSveriges 12:a on 9 May.[41][42]
^Scutaru, Cristina (3 February 2020)."Roxen cucerește topurile muzicale!" [Roxen attains success on music charts!] (in Romanian). DC News.Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved5 February 2020.
Vorbește lumea:"Roxen se pregătește pentru Eurovision" [Roxen is rehearsing for Eurovision] (in Romanian). YouTube. 28 February 2020. Retrieved29 February 2020.
Romania
