Country Romania Selected entrant Nico & Vlad Miriţă | Selection process Selectia Nationala Selected song "Pe-o margine de lume" | |
Selection date(s) Semi-finals
9 February 2008
16 February 2008
Final
23 February 2008 Semi-final result Qualified (7th, 94 points) | ||
Romania selected its Eurovision Song Contest 2008 through Selecţia Naţională, a national final consisting of two-semifinals and a final. The eventual winners were Nico and Vlad Miriţă with the dual-language Romanian/Italian "Pe-o margine de lume". Romania took part in the first semi-final on 20 May 2008, and qualified to compete in the final. The duet has begun their European promotional tour starting with the Greek national selection on February 27, 2008.
Contents
National final
The road to Romania's Eurovision entry commenced when the competition was opened in December 2007, allowing artists of any nationality to submit songs that would then be judged by an internal panel of experts. The panel shortlisted 24 songs, out of 282 submitted compositions, to compete in the national final. Four reserve songs were also chosen in case of any disqualifications or withdrawals before the first semifinal. The songs where then equally divided into two semi-finals in which the top 6 songs voted by a 50/50 jury-televote combination would proceed to the final evening on February 23, 2008.
The selection was notable for the number of foreign acts taking part. In particular, LaGaylia Frazier, Biondo, and Rednex were Swedish artists present in the competition. Also, Maya Slatinsek from Slovenia was originally selected to be part of the national final, however, she withdrew her song after being accepted to compete in the Irish national selection. In addition to foreign acts, former Eurovision participant Nicola entered once again with the prospect of representing Romania for a second time at Eurovision.
After two semi-finals on February 9 and February 16, 2008, twelve songs had qualified to the final round. However, some changes to the running order did occur. Cătălin Josan qualified both of his song to the final but decided to withdraw "When We're Together" from the contest in order to achieve a better result and not split his vote amongst both of his songs. TVR decided to enter Rednex feat. Ro-mania with "Railroad, railroad" into the contest as a replacement. Furthermore, VH2 also withdrew their song, "Follow Me" because of a possible plagiarism claim. New Effect feat. Gentiana was in line to replace them in the national final, however, they were not available to compete due to prior engagements. After running through the non-qualified entries, Yana and "C'est la vie" were given a chance to enter the final.
Semifinal 1
The first semifinal took place on February 9 and aired on TVR 1 & TVRi from 19.15 to 21.00 CET. The group Yana qualified because the songs placed higher turned down the offer to replace VH2's withdrawn entry from the second semi-final.
Semifinal 2
The second semifinal took place on February 16 and aired on TVR 1 & TVR i from 19.15 to 21.00 CET. Rednex feat. Ro-mania qualified because Cătălin Josan withdrew his other song in the first semi-final from the competition.
Final
The final took place on February 23 and aired on TVR 1 & TVR i from 19.15 to 22.00 CET.
At Eurovision
Romania qualified from Semi Final 1 to the Final. In the final they performed in 1st position, before United Kingdom where they picked up 45 points.