Bella Santiago and Linda Teodosiu have been named by TVR as the two acts receiving wild cards in to the Romanian selection for Eurovision 2019.
A total of nine songs were received by TVR after it made a call earlier this week for wild card entries for Selectia Nationala 2019. Singers wishing to receive a wild card, had to give a valid reason why they did not originally submit their song in to the selection process. The singers and songs who were selected by the jury were:
- Bella Santiago – Army of lovers
- Linda Teodosiu – Renegades
For the first time in Selecția Națională history, an international jury will help select the Romanian Eurovision representative. They make up 50% of the vote. The other 50% will come from public voting. In case of a tie, the international jury will decide who will represent Romania in Tel Aviv.
The Humans represented Romania at the 2018 contest in Lisbon where they narrowly missed out on qualifying for the grand final, finishing 11th with their song “Goodbye”. This marked the first time that Romania has failed to qualify for the grand final since the introduction of semi-finals in 2004.
Source: TVR
Romania first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994, the country had tried to participate in 1993 but failed to get through the pre-qualifying round. At the 1994 contest Dan Bittman finished 21st in the final scoring 14 points, Romania didn’t make it through to another final until 1998. Romania’s best results in the contest are two third place finishes. In 2005 Luminita Anghel & Sistem finished 3rd scoring 158 points, while Paula Seling & Ovi finished 3rd in Oslo with the song “Playing with Fire”. Romania missed the 2016 contest due to TVR being removed from the EBU.
