Romania has had mixed results in Eurovision in recent years, after success in the 2000s and early 2010s, they had their first non-qualification in 2018 and only managed to make the final again in 2022.
Once again Romania will be using Selecția Națională to decide their representative. Unlike in 2022 which was 83% Jury, and 17% televote, this year it’ll be 100% televote – meaning the public has full control of who will be going to Liverpool. That’s not the only change this year, instead of having heats and a semi-final like last year, there will just be one final of 12 acts. Hoping to make the grand final once again, these are the 12 acts hoping to represent Romania in Liverpool and you can listen to each song below. Let’s meet them!
Adriana Moraru – Faralaes
Adriana Moraru: Born in Romania, but moved to Spain at a young age, singer and model Adriana Moraru will be singing the feel-good summer pop song ‘Faralaes’, sung entirely in the Spanish language. The song is full of hand claps and even contains a dance break in the middle of the song! You can listen to her song below:
Andrei Duţu – Statues
Andrei Duţu: Born in Bucharest, Andrei Duţu is a singer who moved to the UK at age 18 after being awarded a scholarship to study music. While he was studying, he formed a band called Unknown Chapters. He then moved back to his home country Romania and in 2021, he took part in the Romanian version of The X Factor. He successfully made it into finals in the boys’ category and his mentor was Ștefan Bănică Jr. He will be singing the song ‘Statues’ co-written by former Norwegian Eurovision contestant Mørland.
Aledaida – Bla Bla Bla
Aledaida: Aledaida is a rising star. She has released one single before entering Selecția Națională, her debut single was the earworm ‘In My Mind’ which currently has over 700,000 views on YouTube, as well as 800,000 streams on Spotify. Hoping the National final and Eurovision will be a platform for this rising star, she will be singing the pop song ‘Bla Bla Bla’ which will serve as her next single.
AMIA – Puppet
AMIA: AMIA is a new singer and will be performing her debut single ‘Puppet’ hoping it will be a success for her. The song is an upbeat pop song with elements of Charleston where the lyrics contain circus and theatre metaphors and later talks about breaking free from the puppet strings. This theme continues in the music video for her song. According to the music video “2023 marks 100 years since the birth of the Charleston genre” and her song is “an homage to the beautiful era.” She’ll be hoping to make a big impression on the public watching at home.
Andrada Popa – No Time For Me
Andrada Popa: Andrada Popa is a multi-talented singer/songwriter and actress. If Andrada wins, it won’t be the first time she’ll be representing Romania at a Eurovision contest – she performed at Junior Eurovision in 2008 as part of a duo with Mădălina where they finished in 9th place. Andrada has also had her songs featured on famous shows such as ‘Love Island’ and ‘Selling Sunset’. Her acting career is also successful having been the lead role in the Netflix movie Legatii (The Rope). She will be singing the ballad ‘No Time For Me’.
Andreea D Folchor Orchestra – Periniţa mea
Andreea D Folchor Orchestra: Andreea D is a pop and dance singer who has had a hit with ‘All My People’ which currently has nearly 50 million views on YouTube. She first appeared on the music scene when she took part in ‘Popstars Romania’ when she was 17 when she reached the final. She is also a model, and she won the Miss Earth Romania contest in 2010. She’ll be joined by the Folchor Orchestra for her song. They will be performing ‘Periniţa mea’. A ‘Perinița’ is the name given to a traditional Romanian wedding dance. Their song is an upbeat Romanian folk song and will undoubtedly be a crowd-pleaser in the national final and if it wins, in Liverpool as well.
Deiona – Call On Me
Deiona: Deiona is a upcoming singer who’s only 17 years old, she’ll be singing the song the pop ballad ‘Call On Me’. She knew very early on in life that she wanted to be a singer and musician. This will be her debut single and ever since she was young, her dream was also to represent Romania at Eurovision. All she has to do is beat 11 more acts in order to make it to Liverpool!
Jaxman – Bad & Cool
Jaxman: Jaxman otherwise known as Erin Dăneţ, is a singer, songwriter and producer. He’ll be singing the song ‘Bad & Cool’ which is his debut single. The song itself is an upbeat house number and he’ll be hoping the Romanian public will find him, and his song cool enough to earn him a place in Liverpool. As well as his own song, he has also co-written Deiona’s and AMIA’s songs, meaning he has co-written 25% of the entries in this year’s final!
Maryliss – Hai Vino
Maryliss: Maria Avramescu otherwise known as Maryliss will be singing the song ‘Hai Vino’. Hai Vino means “Come On” in English and this is one of the few songs in the selection that will be sung in 100% Romanian. Maryliss auditioned for The Voice Romania back in 2016 under her real name where she got 4 out of 4 turns from the coaches. She made it to the knockout rounds but was ultimately eliminated before the live shows. A couple years later, she began to release her own music and her most popular videos have 35,000 views. She also uploads covers of songs onto her YouTube channel covering anything from The Weeknd to Chaka Khan.
Ocean Drive – Take You Home
Ocean Drive: Ocean Drive are a group that will be performing their catchy summery song ‘Take You Home’. Like many of the acts in this national final, this will be their debut single. The band will be hoping to take their song all the way to Liverpool for millions of Eurovision fans to hear.
Steven Roho x Gabriella x Formaţia Albatros – Lele
Steven Roho x Gabriella x Formaţia Albatros: Gabriella will be singing their song ‘Lele’, Steven Roho is a Romanian producer and singer. He and Gabriella often work together when making music and Steven recently produced a remix of the worldwide hit ‘Unholy’ by Sam Smith and Kim Petras.
Formaţia Albatros have a lot of experience as they’ve been performing since the 1990s. Some of their songs have received hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube and they’ve had a successful career in Romania and have performed at thousands of concerts in the country over the years. They have worked on the instrumental to their catchy pop song ‘Lele’.
Theodor Andrei – D.G.T (Off and On)
Theodor Andrei: Theodor Andrei is a former contestant on the reality shows The Voice Kids Romania and X Factor Romania. In The Voice Kids, he made it to the Live shows but was knocked out in the Semi-Finals. He will be singing ‘D.G.T (Off and On)‘. D.G.T or ‘degete’ is a Romanian word meaning ‘fingers’. Romania hasn’t sent a song with Romanian lyrics since Eurovision 2015 so will we be hearing Romanian again at Eurovision? We’ll find out on the 11th of February.
The running order for Selecția Națională has already been revealed, which are as follows:
Please note that the final 6 songs also have other numbers because the head of the Romanian delegation drew the numbers out of 36.
Running Order:
- Deiona – Call On Me
- Andrada Popa – No Time For Me
- Ocean Drive – Take You Home
- AMIA – Puppet
- Andrei Duţu – Statues
- Theodor Andrei – D.G.T (On and On)
- (Drew 16) Steven Roho x Gabriella x Formaţia Albatros – Lele
- (Drew 20) Aledaida – Bla Bla Bla
- (Drew 26) Adriana Molaru – Faralaes
- (Drew 29) Maryliss – Hai Vino
- (Drew 32) JaxMan (Erin Dăneţ) – Bad&Cool
- (Drew 35) Andreea D Folchor Orchestra – Periniţa mea
We wish all of the Romanian artists success and can’t wait to see who will represent Romania this year. What’s your favourite song in the Romanian selection? Comment down below!
Photo credit: Metropolitan Records / Aledaida, Thrace Music / Andrei Duţu
