Alexandra Căpitănescu will represent Romania at Eurovision 2026, a competition that will take place in Vienna. The decision was taken by the national jury, following the final broadcast on Wednesday evening by TVR, when the artist was named the winner among the 12 finalists.
The national jury decided that among the 12 finalists, Romania should send the song “Choke Me”, performed by Alexandra Căpitănescu, to the semifinals of the competition. The choice comes after an intense evening, in which the artists tried to convince both the jury and the audience that they deserve to advance Romania’s chance at the great trophy.
The winning song offers a deep and personal message built around inner struggle and self-discovery.
The message behind the song: fighting “ghost voices”
Alexandra Căpitănescu explained that her song is an inner dialogue, a confrontation with her own fears and blockages. “My song represents a dialogue between the person and the ghost voices that do not give us peace, keep us stuck in the past, keep us anchored in fears“, declared the artist.
The chorus, however, brings an optimistic note and an exhortation to balance and self-acceptance. “And the chorus is quite positive: we say how important self-love is, and it tells us to be gentler with ourselves, in general, in everything we do, in all fields, because that’s the only way we reach our true potential. If we didn’t set our own limits, we’d reach 100% of our potential“, said the artist, according to eurovisionromania.ro.
Alexandra Căpitănescu is not at the first major success of her career. She won the trophy of the show Vocea României in 2023, season 11, also obtaining the grand prize worth 100,000 euros.
How Eurovision 2026 works
The draw for the distribution of the countries in the two semi-finals took place on January 12, in Vienna. Following this, it was determined that Romania will advance to the second semi-final, scheduled for May 14.
In the first semi-final, which will take place on May 12, Israel, Montenegro, Estonia, Georgia, Portugal, San Marino, Croatia, Sweden, Poland, Belgium, Lithuania, Serbia, Finland, Moldova and Greece will compete.
The second semi-final, on May 14, will bring Albania, Denmark, Armenia, Romania, Cyprus, Switzerland, Norway, Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Malta, Bulgaria, Australia, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Latvia to the stage.
The voting system involves combining the points awarded by the jury with the public’s vote, so that ten songs from each semi-final will be chosen for the final. The 20 qualified tracks will automatically be joined by Austria, the winner of the previous edition, which is already qualified for the grand final on 16 May.
France, Germany, Italy and Great Britain also qualify directly for the finals without taking part in the semi-finals due to their status as the competition’s main funders.
