Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013

Eurovision Song Contest 2013
Country	Romania
National selection
Selection process	Selecția Națională 2013
Selection date(s)	Semi-finals: 23 February 2013 24 February 2013 Final: 9 March 2013
Selected entrant	Cezar
Selected song	"It's My Life"
Selected songwriter(s)	Cristian Faur
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Qualified (5th, 83 points)
Final result	13th, 65 points
Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2012 • 2013 • 2014►

Prior to the 2013 contest, Romania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 14 times since its first entry in 1994. To this point, its highest placing in the contest has been third place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 2005 with the song "Let Me Try" performed by Luminița Anghel and Sistem, and in 2010 with the song "Playing with Fire" performed by Paula Seling and Ovi. To this point, Romania has qualified to the final on every occasion since the introduction of semi-finals to the format of the contest in 2004. In 2012, "Zaleilah" by Mandinga placed 12th in the final.^[1]

The Romanian national broadcaster,

The two semi-finals took place on 23 and 24 February 2013. In each semi-final sixteen songs competed and six qualified to the final based on the 50/50 combination of the votes from a seven-member jury panel and public televoting.[12]^[13] The members of the jury panel that voted during the semi-finals were: George Natsis (composer), Alexandra Cepraga (musical director), Crina Mardare (composer), Eduard Cârcotă (composer), Andrei Tudor (composer), Dana Dorian (music critic) and Mihai Ogăşanu (composer).^[14][15]

In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval act featured performances from the show hosts Paula Seling, Ovi, Andreea Bănică and Marius Rizea performing the

Following Selecția Națională 2013, a protest group on Facebook was created that sought to boycott the results and call into question jury member Ştefan Naftanailă who awarded zero points to Luminița Anghel.^[20][21] Anghel also accused that the zero points from Naftanailă, who claimed to have voted "taking into account the quality of the song, the interpretation and the performer's ability to cope with this contest", had something personal to do with her and was done intentionally in order for Cezar to win.^[22] Project manager of the competition, Dan Manoliu, stated that the results meet the criteria for the competition despite being also surprised with Naftanailă's votes.^[5]

Promotion

Cezar made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "It's My Life" as the Romanian Eurovision entry. On 13 April, Cezar performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Marlayne and Linda Wagenmakers.^[23] On 21 April, Cezar performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell.^[24] On 28 April, Cezar took part in promotional activities in Brussels, Belgium where he performed during the Romanian Spring Festival which was held at the Fish Market Square, and the Le You Gay Tea Dance - You'rovision event which was held at the Le You venue.^[25]

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "

Once all the competing songs for the 2013 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Romania was set to perform last in position 17, following the entry from Switzerland.^[27]

All three shows were broadcast in Romania on

Cezar took part in technical rehearsals on 9 and 11 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 15 and 16 May. This included the jury show on 15 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.

The stage show featured Cezar dressed in a long black sequin cloak with Swarovski stones designed by Doina Levintza. The performance began with Cezar standing between shards that were lowered from the rigging, who was then joined on stage by acrobatic dancers. The stage displayed red and blue colours with lighting bolts being projected on the rear screen. Towards the end of the song, both Cezar and the shards were raised from the stage with the dancers waving a huge piece of red material to his front. The performance also featured pyrotechnic flame effects, fireworks and confetti, the latter being used at the end of the performance.^[29][30] The four dancers that joined Cezar on stage were Florentin Munteanu, Sandra Mavhima, Simona Deaconescu and Sivu Mititelu, while an off-stage backing vocalist, Alexandra Toma, was also featured for the performance.^[31][32]

At the end of the show, Romania was announced as having finished in the top ten and subsequently qualifying for the grand final.^[33] It was later revealed that Romania placed fifth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 83 points.^[34]

Final

Shortly after the second semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the order the countries appeared in the semi-final running order. Romania was drawn to compete in the second half.^[35] Following this draw, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Romania was subsequently placed to perform in position 14, following the entry from Netherlands and before the entry from United Kingdom.^[36]

Cezar once again took part in dress rehearsals on 17 and 18 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show. Dorians performed a repeat of their semi-final performance during the final on 18 May. At the conclusion of the voting, Romania finished in thirteenth place with 65 points.^[37]

Voting

Voting during the three shows consisted of 50 percent public televoting and 50 percent from a jury deliberation. The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent. This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury could be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently.

Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that Romania had placed seventh with the public televote and twenty-fourth with the jury vote in the final. In the public vote, Romania received an average rank of 7.49, while with the jury vote, Romania received an average rank of 17.82. In the second semi-final, Romania placed first with the public televote with an average rank of 4.78 and thirteenth with the jury vote with an average rank of 9.70.

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Romania and awarded by Romania in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Azerbaijan in the semi-final and to Moldova in the final of the contest.

Points awarded to Romania

Points awarded to Romania (Semi-final 2)[38] Score Country 12 points 10 points  Greece  Iceland  Israel  Malta 8 points  Azerbaijan 7 points  Germany 6 points  France  Norway 5 points  Albania 4 points  Finland 3 points  Armenia 2 points  Bulgaria 1 point  Macedonia  Spain

Points awarded to Romania (Final)[39] Score Country 12 points 10 points  Greece  Moldova 8 points 7 points  Malta 6 points  Azerbaijan  Iceland  Norway 5 points  Albania 4 points  Austria  Sweden  United Kingdom 3 points 2 points 1 point  France  Italy  Montenegro

Points awarded by Romania

Points awarded by Romania (Semi-final 2)[38] Score Country 12 points  Azerbaijan 10 points  Greece 8 points  Norway 7 points  Malta 6 points  Hungary 5 points  Armenia 4 points  San Marino 3 points  Finland 2 points  Israel 1 point  Bulgaria

Points awarded by Romania (Final)[39] Score Country 12 points  Moldova 10 points  Azerbaijan 8 points  Norway 7 points  Greece 6 points  Denmark 5 points  Malta 4 points  Ukraine 3 points  United Kingdom 2 points  Netherlands 1 point  Italy

References

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