Why did Romania withdraw from Eurovision? What is the main obstacle to a Eurovision comeback? The Romanian national broadcaster reveals that the crisis causing its withdrawal is deeper than we know, and sets terms and conditions for a comeback.
After withdrawing from Eurovision 2024 due to financial difficulties, the Romanian national broadcaster TVR now faces a more profound crisis impacting Romania’s relationship with the competition. Beyond economic challenges, what other obstacles lie ahead?
At a recent press conference, Dan Turturică, president of Romanian national broadcaster TVR, raised complex issues surrounding Romania’s prolonged absence from Eurovision. He revealed that, in addition to financial struggles, there is a severe breakdown in relations between TVR and Romania’s music industry, including record labels and music companies.
For years, TVR collaborated with record labels and artists by offering Eurovision as an exposure platform. However, TVR now questions whether the effort is worthwhile, as labels and artists benefit significantly while the broadcaster gains little in return; “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”.
The conflict between TVR and record labels escalated when the broadcaster proposed a new national selection format where only public votes would determine Romania’s Eurovision representative. This decision angered many Romanian record labels, whose representatives traditionally serve as judges in the national selection process. “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”.
A Romanian Return to Eurovision? Under Conditions!
Turturică emphasized that rebuilding relationships between TVR and the Romanian music industry is essential for any future participation in Eurovision. He added: “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 enter 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”.
Romania’s Eurovision Journey
Romania has faced significant challenges in Eurovision over the past decade. On April 22, 2016, Romania was disqualified from participating in Eurovision 2016 in Stockholm due to unpaid debts to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). This occurred after Ovidiu Anton was selected with his song “Moment of Silence” and had already been assigned a draw position in the second Semi-Final. Despite this setback, Romania returned to compete six more times. In 2017, Romania achieved one of its best results, finishing seventh, but subsequent years saw struggles. From 2018 to 2021, Romania failed to qualify for the final three times consecutively, those were the first three times in its history which Romania was eliminated during the semi-finals. In 2022, against all odds, Romania reached the final and placed 18th. However, Eurovision 2023 marked a painful farewell: Romania finished last in its semi-final for the first time ever and received zero points alongside San Marino.
For Eurovision 2024, Romania delayed confirming its participation while awaiting budget approvals from the Ministry of Finance. After requesting an extension, it officially announced its withdrawal on January 25th, 2024. Hopes briefly resurfaced for Eurovision 2025 when Montenegro confirmed its return after a two-year absence on August 7th, 2024. However, Romania ultimately remained absent from the participant list, marking its longest hiatus since missing three consecutive contests from 1995 to 1997.
Source: B1TV
Romania has participated in Eurovision 24 times since joining the competition in 1993. Romania has never won the contest, and its best achievement is third place, which it reached twice in 2005 and 2010.
