General Director of TVR hopeful for Romania's return to Eurovision in the future.
Dan Turturică, the General Director for Romanian broadcaster TVR, has stated, in a discussion with numerous journalists, that Eurovision will happen again for Romania “when the relationship between TVR and music producers in Romania is reset.”
Romania’s participation in Eurovision is decided by Romanian Television, through its Board of Directors, and it is based on two things: the broadcaster’s available budget and the quality of artists and music in Romania, as Libertatea reports.
Romania were absent from Eurovision 2024, with the main reasons for their withdrawal being “financial restraints and the desire to represent Romania at a high level.” It is also understood that, (whilst not being mentioned directly), TVR have complained about the poor quality of singers, and the disastrous performances in previous contests.
Romania will once again be absent from Eurovision this year, with the reasons for their second non-participation in a row explained by the General Director, Dan Turturică in a discussion held in TVR Studio 2 with several journalists.
“It will make sense to return with a participation in Eurovision when the relationship between Romanian Television and music producers, music producers from Romania, will be reset. Because one of these arguments, it is not the most important, but this one comes to mind, was that Romanian Television promotes many artists with whom production houses enter the contest, but the benefits that Romanian television has, as a result of this collaboration, which should be win-win, were not. They were not of the type that other public televisions that promote artists have.”
The Head of TVR has also chimed in, and has stated that national television does not have the power to select the best songs to go to Eurovision, and that production houses do not support TVR’s qualiative approach to Eurovision:
“The last time we organized Eurovision and when we decided to vote only by the public, to no longer have a jury that selects, many of the production houses stopped sending their singers and stopped contributing. But Romanian Television… We cannot invent singers, we are not music composers either, so our power to influence the quality of the songs that enter the selection and implicitly the selection, so that we send artists to the Eurovision stage that we can be proud of and who are considered by many people as representatives of the Romanian music scene, has become very narrow. We will return to Eurovision when we can truly bring to the Eurovision stage from Romania artists who are truly at the top of the music industry.”
The Head of TVR goes on to say that in previous years, production houses have profitited from Romania’s Eurovision participation, but that TVR earned very little in comparison, which “is not fair.”
Romania made their Eurovision debut in 1994 with Dan Bittman and his song “Dincolo de nori”. With the exception of 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2016, Romania has participated in every other Eurovision Song Contest up until 2023, which was their last participation. Theodor Andrei performed his song “D.G.T (Off and On) in Liverpool, finishing in 15th place in semi final two. Romania last qualified to the final in 2022, with WRS and “Llámame“.
Across their 24 Eurovision participations, Romania has achieved six top ten finishes, with their best results coming in 2005 and 2010, when Luminița Anghel ft. Sistem abd Paula Seling & Ovi finished in third place.
What are your thoughts on the possibility of a Romanian return to Eurovision? What is your favourite Romanian Eurovision entry? Let us know in the comments below!
Photo credit: Sarah Louise Bennett / EBU
