The National Television announced on Thursday evening who are the ten finalists of the National Selection who will compete for a place in the final in Vienna of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Between February 9 and 11, 68 artists entered in the semi-final of the National Selection went on stage and presented their songs live, in front of the jury, according to Agerpres.
“All the jury members judged at the end of each day, but they didn’t send their scores until the end of the three days. When they also compared all the soloists who were in the semi-finals, they showed their scores and then a ranking was made“, said Iuliana Marciuc, the producer of the Eurovision National Selection, according to the TVR website.
The chosen ones of the jury – who will be able to be watched in the Grand Final that will take place on Tuesday 4th, were presented in the evening Telejournal.
They are: Alejandro Zandes & Emil Rengle (‘Bailando Solo’), Alexandra Căpitănescu (‘Choke Me’), Edward Maya x LavBbe x Costi (‘Everybody Needs Somebody’), Emy Alupei (‘Tili Bom’), HVNDS (DOR’), Monica Odagiu (‘Feerastra Pentru Un Orb’), Olivia Addams (‘Croco’), Robert Lukian (‘Fire to the lies’), Vanu (‘Therapy Enemy’) and Yguana (‘Happy Birthday’).
Alejandro Zandes & Emil Rengle – Bailando Solo
Alexandra Capitănescu – Choke Me
Edward Maya x LavBbe x Costi – Everybody Needs Somebody
Emy Alupei – Tili Bom
HVNDS – I MISS
Monica Odagiu – Window for a blind man
Olivia Addams – Croco
Robert Lukian – Fire to the lies
Yguana – Happy Birthday
Vanu – Therapy Enemy
The eleventh song to enter the finals will be chosen by the fans
Fan feedback and the quality of the semi-finalist pieces convinced the organizers to involve the public in the judging process. Thus, the pieces ranked 11-15, according to the score given by the specialized Jury in the audition stage of the semi-final, enter a distinct procedure for qualification to the final, called ‘Wild Card from the public’.
From tonight until February 15, at 19:00, the public will be able to watch the five eligible songs on the official YouTube channel of TVR – youtube.com/@TVRcanaluloficial, in a dedicated playlist. This is Alexa & Aria Moon – ‘iELE’, Antonio Pican – ‘Humans’, Bogdan Medvedi – ‘Broken Heart’, Impact – ‘Bengalo’ and Wrs – ‘All The Way’.
The song that will have the most views on the YouTube channel from the list of five, will enter the final, along with the other ten, chosen by the expert jury.
The lineup of the final will be completed on Sunday evening, at 20.00, when the song will be announced that will benefit from a wild card from the public for the last act of the National Selection.
The Eurovision Romania team will later publish a new playlist that will fully include each of the 11 songs qualified in the final of the National Selection for ESC 2026, on the official YouTube channel of TVR – youtube.com/@TVRcanaluloficial. The playlist will remain publicly available until March 4 at 12:00 p.m.
For the last act of the National Selection on March 4, Romanian Television will produce a TV show, broadcast live, on air and online, exclusively on TVR.
During the final of the National Selection, the public could once again be involved in choosing the representative of our country at the international competition: the number of views accumulated by each finalist song in the playlist published on February 15 will constitute a tie-breaker in the event of a runoff.
The broadcast of the final will benefit from interpretation in Romanian sign language
The online broadcast of the National Selection final will benefit, for the first time, from interpretation in Romanian Sign Language (LSR). The team consists of Marieta Negru and Andreea Darie, two hearing-impaired interpreters with experience in music interpretation, together with Lena Dermengiu, TVR journalist and authorized interpreter in Romanian sign language, with extensive experience in the field.
On May 14, Romania will enter the international contest, in the semifinal with number two.
Under the slogan “United by Music”, the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 will take place in Vienna, with the semi-finals on 12 and 14 May and the final on 16 May.
In the 2026 edition of the music competition, 34 other countries signed up alongside Romania: Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and Great Britain.
The previous edition of the music competition was won by the representative of Austria, JJ, with the song ‘Wasted Love’.
