The Eurovision Song Contest is still very popular in Romania, although the country was kicked out of last year’s edition due to the public television TVR’s debt to the European Broadcasting Company (EBU). More than 80 artists compete to represent Romania at the 2017 edition of the event.

A total of 84 songs have made it to Romania’s National Selection, TVR announced. Local music artists such as Lora, Mihai Traistariu, Florin Chilian, Maxim, Tavi Colen, and Tudor Turcu, as well as compositions from Sweden, UK, and the US hope to represent Romania at the Eurovision. All registrations had to be submitted by January 22.

Next, on January 27-29, a jury will select the semifinalists. The auditions will be recorded and broadcast by TVR HD, TVR 2, and TVR International between February 5 and February 11.

The National Selection’s Semifinal will be organized on February 27, while the artist who will represent Romania will be announced during the Final scheduled for March 5.

The 2017 Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Kyiv. The semifinals will be organized on May 9 and May 11 while the final is scheduled for May 13. Besides Romania, 42 other countries have registered for the competition.

Although Romania selected an artist to represent it at the 2016 Eurovision, the country was kicked out from the contest because TVR has accumulated debts of some EUR 14.5 million to the EBU. The organization decided to exclude Romania from the competition after the deadline for repaying the debt (April 22, 2016) wasn't met by TVR. The Romanian entry for the 2016 contest would have been the song Moment of Silence, written and performed by Ovidiu Anton.

Voltaj represented Romania at the 2015 Eurovision with the song All over again / De la capat, ranking 15th in the final organized in Vienna, Austria.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com