In an email to Eurovoix, Romanian broadcaster TVR says it has not made a decision on competing at Eurovision in 2025 yet.
Romania withdrew from the 2024 contest after a proposed budget for their participation was rejected by the board of TVR. But, speaking to Eurovoix, the broadcaster has not conclusively said that Romania will be missing Eurovision for another year.
A spokesperson for TVR said:
Until now, we not have any decision for further participation on Eurovision Song Contest 2025.
Romania is one of several countries who have pulled out of the contest in recent years due to financial difficulties. Ahead of the 2023 contest, Bulgaria and North Macedonia withdrew from Eurovision for the same reason.
Montenegro were another country to do so ahead of the 2023 contest, but have confirmed they will be returning to Eurovision next year.
Romania spent over 380,000 Euros on participating in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. This cost included the participation fee which all broadcasters must pay the EBU to compete, which was 180,000 Euros. The other 200,000 Euros covered other expenditure, such as travel, accommodation and staging.
In 2023, Romania achieved their worst ever result at Eurovision, when Theodor Andrei’s song “D.G.T (Off and On)” scored 0 points in the second semi-final of the contest. We will have to wait to find out if Romania will be able to send an artist to improve on that result at Eurovision 2025.
Image Source: EBU / Corinne Cumming
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 due to debts to the organisation.
