Twenty-two of the sixty-eight songs that have made it through to the Semi-Finals of Selecția Națională 2026 have been released today.
The songs hoping to represent Romania on its return to the Eurovision Song Contest have started to be released. To date, twenty-two songs have been released by the artists who have made it through to the Semi-Final stages, which will take place next week. The songs released to date are:
The semi-finalists will perform across three days, February 9 to 11. The semi-finalists will perform their entries in front of the jury, who will select ten artists to advance to the final. The finalists will be announced on February 12 during Telejurnal at 8:00 PM, live on TVR 1, TVR INFO, and on tvrplus.ro.
The final of Selecția Națională 2026 will take place on March 4. A jury will decide which artist will represent Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna.
Romania will come back to the Eurovision Song Contest after two years of absence. The last time they participated was in 2023, with “D.G.T. (Off And On)” by Theodor Andrei, scoring 0 points in the second semi-final. They are one of the three countries coming back to the contest in 2026, together with Bulgaria and Moldova. Romania actively participated in Eurovision from 1994 until its withdrawal in 2024 due to financial problems.
Romania first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994. The country tried to participate in 1993 but failed to get through the pre-qualifying round. At the 1994 contest, Dan Bittman finished 21st in the final scoring 14 points, Romania didn’t make it through to another final until 1998. Romania’s best results in the contest are two third-place finishes. In 2005, Luminita Anghel & Sistem finished 3rd scoring 158 points, while Paula Seling & Ovi finished 3rd in 2010 with the song “Playing with Fire”. Romania missed the 2016 contest due to TVR being removed from the EBU due to debts to the organisation. Romania has not participated in Eurovision since 2023, coming back only this year.