The seventeenth artist to feature in our Who Is series for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest is Roxen from Romania.
Larisa Roxana Giurgiu (Roxen) was born on January 5 2000 in Cluj-Napoca in northwestern Romania. At the age of 7, she began singing and participating in numerous competitions and festivals, and has since gone on to release two songs that have featured in the Romanian radio charts: “You Don’t Love Me” and “Ce-ti canta dragostea” (What love sings to you). According to Media Forest weekly charts, Roxen is the 3rd most played artist on Romanian radio stations.
In 2020, she was internally selected by TVR to represent Romania at the Eurovision Song Contest. Selecția Națională 2020 was then held, in which Roxen performed five potential Eurovision entries. “Alcohol You” was the favourite of both the jury and public vote.
Following the cancellation of the contest, TVR announced that Roxen would instead represent the country at the 2021 contest. Six songs were in the running this year, with a jury consisting of music professionals ultimately deciding on the competing entry.
Roxen will sing “Amnesia” at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam. She will perform in the second half of the first semi-final on May 18th.
Image 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.
