Romania was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Goodbye" written by Alexandru Matei, Alin Neagoe and Cristina Caramarcu. The song was performed by the Humans. The Romanian broadcaster Televiziunea Română (TVR) organised the national final Selecția Națională 2018 in order to select the Romanian entry for the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal. The national final consisted of six shows: five semi-finals and a final. A total of sixty entries were selected and twelve competed in each semi-final where a five-member jury panel selected three entries to advance to the final. The fifteen qualifiers competed in the final on 25 February 2018 where "Goodbye" performed by The Humans was selected as the winner entirely by a public vote.
Romania was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 10 May 2018. Performing during the show in position 2, "Goodbye" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. This broken the qualifying streak for 13 years. This marked the first time that Romania failed to qualify to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest from a semi-final since the introduction of semi-finals in 2004. It was later revealed that Romania placed eleventh out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 107 points.
Background
Prior to the 2018 contest, Romania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 18 times since its first entry in 1994. To this point, its highest placing in the contest has been third place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 2005 with the song "Let Me Try" performed by Luminița Anghel and Sistem, and in 2010 with the song "Playing with Fire" performed by Paula Seling and Ovi. To this point, Romania has qualified to the final on every occasion since the introduction of semi-finals to the format of the contest in 2004. After returning to the contest in 2017 following their forced one-year absence in 2016 due to repeated non-payment of debts to the EBU, "Yodel It!" by Ilinca featuring Alex Florea placed 7th in the final.
The Romanian national broadcaster, Televiziunea Română (TVR), broadcasts the event within Romania and organizes the selection process for the nation's entry. TVR has consistently selected the Romanian Eurovision entry through national finals that feature a competition among several artists and songs. The broadcaster confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest on 7 July 2017. TVR had set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Romania, a procedure which the broadcaster opted for once again to select their 2018 entry.
Before Eurovision Selecția Națională 2018
Selecția Națională 2018 was the national final organised by TVR in order to select Romania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The competition consisted of six shows: five semi-finals featuring twelve songs each and a final featuring fifteen songs to be held between 21 January and 25 February 2018. Under the slogan Eurovision unește România! (Eurovision unites Romania!), the shows took place in different cities across Romania in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Union of Transylvania with Romania (also known locally as the "Great Union") and were hosted by Diana Dumitrescu and Cezar Ouatu who represented Romania in 2013. Several host cities contributed financially towards organising the event: the city of Timișoara contributed €43,000 for the second semi-final, the city of Craiova contributed €40,795 for the third semi-final, and the city of Turda contributed approximately €30,000 for fourth semi-final.
The six shows were televised on TVR1, TVR HD, TVRi as well as online via the broadcaster's streaming service TVR+ and YouTube. The six shows were also broadcast in Moldova via the channel TVR Moldova. TVR hosted behind-the-scenes programmes the day prior to each show which contained interviews and pre-recorded inserts such as rehearsal, press conference footage and other backstage material.
+ Cities and venues of Selecția Națională 2018 Show Date City Venue Semi-final 1 21 January 2018 Focșani Teatrul Municipal "Maior Gheorghe Pastia" Semi-final 2 28 January 2018 Timișoara Teatrul Național "Mihai Eminescu" Semi-final 3 4 February 2018 Craiova Teatrul Național "Marin Sorescu" Semi-final 4 11 February 2018 Turda Rudolf Mine, Salina Turda Semi-final 5 18 February 2018 Sighișoara Sala de Spectacole "Mihai Eminescu" Final 25 February 2018 Bucharest Sala Polivalentă
Competing entries
TVR opened a submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries between 15 November 2017 and 15 December 2017. The broadcaster received 72 submissions after the submission deadline passed, of which 68 participated in auditions held on 19 and 20 December 2017 at the TVR Studio 2 in Bucharest. The auditions were later broadcast on TVR1 and TVR HD between 12 and 15 January 2018.The three audition shows are available online as two halves each:
A jury panel consisting of Marian Ionescu (bass guitarist, pianist, composer), Liliana Ștefan (lyricist), Nicu Patoi (guitarist), Ilinca Băcilă (singer, represented Romania in 2017) and Viorel Gavrilă (composer, conductor) reviewed the performances during the auditions and rated each song between 1 (lowest) and 10 (highest) based on criteria such as the melodic harmony and structure of the song, the orchestral arrangement, originality and stylistic diversity of the composition and sound and voice quality. After the combination of the jury votes, the top sixty entries that scored the highest were selected for the national final. The competing entries were announced on 22 December 2017. Among the competing artists was Mihai and Alex Florea, who previously represented Romania in 2006 and 2017, respectively.
On 9 January 2018, "Fix Me", written by Ioana Victoria Badea and Alexandru Daniel Gajaila and to have been performed by Freia was disqualified from the competition due to the song having been released in China prior to 1 September 2017. The entry was replaced with the song "Baby You're the Only One" performed by Tomer Cohen. On 21 January 2018, Tom Hartis withdrew his song "Teardrop Rain", which was set to compete on the first semi-final, for health reasons.
Artist Song Songwriter(s) Alessandro Dănescu "Breaking Up" John Ballard, Jonathan Dahl, Robin Carlsson, Marcus Holmberg Alex Florea Jonas Thander, Aidan O'Connor Alexandru Ungureanu "Sail with Me" Alexandru Ungureanu Alexia and Matei "Walking on Water" Mihai Alexandru, Alina Todașcă-Dascălu Alice Jeckel "Out of the Dark" Cezar Dometi, Alice Jeckel Aurel Dincă "Fire in the Sky" Aurel Dincă, Victor Solomon Ayona "The Story Goes On" Ovidiu Anton Bernice Chitiul "Too Busy for My Heart" Florin Chitiul, Bernice Chitiul Carolina Gorun "Reach Out for the Stars" Peter Jordan, Jannis Kaffka, Lenne Kaffka, Andre Bollweg Claudia Andas "The One" Samuel Bugia Garrido, Roxana Elekes Cornel "Take Me Away" Ștefan-Suraj Trandafir, Cornel-Ionuț Ciubotaru Cristian Simionescu "Nirvana" Cristian Simionescu Dan Manciulea "Rază de soare" Dan Manciulea, Dinu Olărașu Denisa Trofin "Tears" Alexandru Luft, Tiberiu Băncilă Diana Brătan "Paint It Rainbow" Diana Brătan Dora Gaitanovici "Fără tine" Dora Gaitanovici Echoes "Mirror" Liviu Elekes, Claudiu Dănăilă, Pavel Petricenco Eduard Santha "Me som romales" Alexandru Luft, Eduard Santha Elena Hasna "Revival" Ylva Persson, Linda Persson, Dan Attlerud Elena Turcu "The Perfect Fall" Marian Nica, Alexandra Ivan Eliza Chifu "So Good Without You" Valeriu Moruz, Doina Sclifos Endless feat. Maria Grosu "Thinking About You" Will Taylor, Jonas Gladnikoff Erminio Sinni and Tiziana Camelin "All the Love Away" Erminio Sinni, Mauro Goldsand, Alessandro Camponeschi, Tiziana Camelin Evermorph "Live Your Life" Alin Neagoe, Ciprian Lemnaru, Alexandru Rotărescu Feli "Bună de iubit" Felicia Donose, Florin Boka, Vlad Popescu, Șerban Cazan "Bună de iubit (Royalty)" Felicia Donose, Florin Boka, Vlad Popescu, Șerban Cazan, Cristi Pascu, Dorian Micu, Vlad Munteanu Hellen "From Underneath" John Ballard, Magnus Hydén The Humans "Goodbye" Alexandru Matei, Alin Neagoe, Cristina Caramarcu Iliana "I Won't Lie" George Lazăr, Eduard Taraș, Elena Moroșanu Ioana Ciornea "Time After Time" Daniel Lazăr, Dominic Cini, Christian Arding, Mario Farrugia Jessie "Lightning Strikes" Pelle Blarke, Ellie Wyatt, Amy Amanda van der Wel Johnny Bădulescu "Devoted" Michael James Down, Primož Poglajen, Jonas Gladnikoff Jukebox feat. Bella Santiago "Auzi cum bate" Alex Luft, Bogdan Marinescu, Cristina Dobrescu Lina "A Love Worth Falling For" Lina Sandén, Gustav Nilsson, Johan Smith Lion's Roar "Rekindle the Flame" Liviu Sorescu Liviu Anghel "Rise Up" Bogdan Marian Păunescu, Liviu Anghel, Ana-Maria Mirică Manuel Chivari "Somebody to Love" Michael James Down, Will Taylor Mareș Pană "Daydreamer" Mareș-Cătălin Pană, Georgian Mărgărit, Ștefan-Adrian Marin Maria Suciu "Sweet Nothing" Mădălin Botezatu Meriem "End the Battle" Meriem Vizitiu, Mihail Gheorghe, Marian Achim Mihai "Heaven" Michael James Down, Will Taylor, Jonas Gladnikoff, Mihai Trăistariu Miruna Diaconescu "Run for You" Radu Pompiu Bolfea, Marcel Prodan Nicoleta Țicală "Una oportunidad" Samuel Bugia Garrido Othello "Noi suntem pădure" Florentin Milcof, Laura Sgârcitu Paula Crișan "I Am Here" Paula Crișan Pragu' de Sus "Te voi chema" Călin Bârcean Rafael and Friends "We Are One" Rafael, Alexandru Nucă Romeo Zaharia "Maybe This Time" Fred Endersen, Olaf Owre Save "All We Need" Stelian Savu, Vlad Isac Serena "Safari" Radu Baișan, Nicolae Stan, Diana Șerban, Mircea Nistor Sergiu Bolotă "Every Little Thing" Sergiu Bolotă Tavi Clonda "King" Alex Luft, Tavi Clonda, Cristina Dobrescu, Alexandru Duma, Denisa Demian, Alina Colțan Teodora Dinu "Fly" Thomas Reil, Jeppe Reil, Udo Mechels, Maria Broberg Tiri "Deșert de sentimente" Mihail Tirică Tomer Cohen "Baby You're the Only One" Tomer Cohen Vyros "La la la" Vladimir Cioban Waleska "Renacer" Waleska Díaz González Xandra "Try" Michael James Down, Will Taylor, Jonas Gladnikoff Zavera "Come Back to Me" Florin Octav Ionescu, Petre Bogdan, Marian Mihai, Raluca Răducanu, Ionuț Fleancu, Vasile Simion, Marilena Ionescu, Cristian Costache Zøltan "Dacă dragostea e oarbă" Sebestyén Zoltán László
Shows
Semi-finals The five semi-finals took place between 21 January and 28 February 2018 with different presenters hosting segments from the green room in each show: Anca Medeleanu in the first semi-final, Doriana Talpeș in the second semi-final, Alina Șerban in the third semi-final, Loredana Corchiș in the four semi-final and Simona Boantă in the fifth semi-final. In each semi-final twelve songs competed and a jury panel selected three songs to qualify to the final. The members of the jury panel that voted during the semi-finals were: Marian Ionescu (bass guitarist, pianist, composer), Liliana Ștefan (lyricist), Nicu Patoi (guitarist), Ilinca Băcilă (singer, represented Romania in 2017) and Viorel Gavrilă (composer, conductor).