After her victory at Selectia Nationala, the Romanian artist has signed with major record label, Cat Music.
Ester Peony will represent Romania in Eurovision 2019 after emerging as a surprise winner of Selectia Nationala 2019. Last week, she was officially announced as joining Cat Music following her win.
Cat music is the largest music producer in Romania and counts several Romanian Eurovision alumni on its books including Elena (2009), Mandinga (2012), Voltaj (2014) and Ilinca (2017).
Ester Peony’s debut EP, “Dig it” was released in May 2018 independently.
The singer has also recently finished shooting a music video for her Eurovision entry, “On a Sunday.” The video, shot at Casa Monteoru, shows Ester as being “imprisoned in a deserted house”, and has been directed by Petre Nastase.
Since winning Selectia Nationala 2019, Ester Peony has been subject to intense criticism and speculation from the Romanian press. The Romanian Parliament discussed her victory which was decided by 7/8 International Jury and 1/8 public vote. An investigation was held following reports in the Romanian media that the song was guilty of plagiarism, but the Romanian broadcaster TVR cleared it.
Romania will participate in the first half of the second semi-final of Eurovision 2019 which will be held in Tel Aviv on 16 May 2019. Last year, the country failed to qualify for the grand final in Lisbon for the first time in Eurovision history when The Humans performed “Goodbye.”
Watch the national final performance of “On a Sunday” below:
Source: Facebook
Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest
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.
