Romanian singers Ilinca and Alex Florea qualified on Thursday evening to the final of the Eurovision 2017 song competition, with their song Yodel It!. (watch a video of their performance in the semifinal below)

The Eurovision organizers have also announced the running order of the grand final on Saturday, May 13, with a total of 26 performances being included in the program.

Romania is at number 20, after Israel, Poland, Belarus, Austria, Armenia, The Netherlands, Moldova, Hungary, Italy, Denmark, Portugal, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Australia, Greece, Spain, Norway, United Kingdom, and Cyprus. The representatives of Germany, Ukraine, Belgium, Sweden, Bulgaria, and France will perform after Romania’s Ilinca and Alex Florea.

Italian Francesco Gabbani is the big favorite at the betting houses, with his song Occidentali's Karma, followed closely by Portugal’s Salvador Sobral and Bulgaria’s Kristian Kostov, reports local Digi24. Romania is the sixth-favorite country, according to the bookmakers.

The final of the 2017 Eurovision song contest will take place in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday.

Romania first participated in the competition in 1994. Since then, Romanian artists have managed to get two third places, in 2005 (Luminita Anghel & Sistem) and 2010 (Paula Seling & OVI). Last year, Romania was kicked out of Eurovision because the national television TVR had debts of some EUR 14.5 million to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX8LYc5eaEM

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

(Photo source: Eurovision Romania on Facebook)