Tonight Romania will begin their search for their 2019 Eurovision entrant, as their national final Selecția Națională 2019 starts with the first semi final!

A total of 126 entries were submitted, and 24 semi-finalists were announced by TVR at the end of 2018. Two semi-finals will take place, with twelve acts in each one. Six acts from each semi-final will proceed to the Grand Final, and the winner will represent Romania in Tel Aviv.

How to watch

You can watch the first semi-final of Selecția Națională 2019 on the following channels from 20:00 CET (21:00 local time):

• TVR1
• TVR HD
• TVR international
• Live from tvrplus.ro

The show

Twelve acts will perform their song tonight, and another twelve will perform next week. The four songs with the most points from the national jury will qualify for the final. A further two acts which receive the most televotes will also proceed to the final.

Tonight’s competing entries:

1. Bella Santiago – Army of love
2. Berniceya – The call: Dynasty of love
3. Claudiu Mirea – We are the ones
4. Dya and Lucian Colareza – Without you (Sin ti)
5. The Four – Song of my heart
6. Nicola – Weight of the world
7. Ommieh and Anakrisez – Rock this way
8. Steam – The way it goes
9. Teodora Dinu – Skyscraper
10. Trooper – Destin
11. Vaida – Underground

Nicola has represented Romania again, namely at the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Don’t break my heart, which finished in 10th place.

Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest

Romania have competed 19 times since their debut in 1994. Their best result came in 2005 and 2010 when they finished third. Last year, Romania were represented by The Humans with their song Goodbye, but they missed out on qualifying for the final for the first time in Romania’s Eurovision history.