Following the Romanian broadcaster, TVR's announcement of the 24 songs to compete for the country's ticket to the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade, esctoday.com contacted them to discuss the list and possible irregularities with the artist names.
Certain names will be well known to Eurovision Song Contest fans, including last year's disqualified Romanian finalists from Sweden, the Rednex and Roman-ia. Also in the list, the names of Henrik Wikström can be found as a composer of the songs Shine and Dr Frankenstein. Henrik already has five entries in this year's Swedish preselection and wrote last year's Swedish finalist, Cara Mia for Måns Zelmerlöw. Måns is a named writer on the song Shine which has passed to the Romanian semi finals and winner of the 2007 esctoday.com award for Best Male Performance at a National Final (not to qualify for the Eurovision Song Contest).
esctoday.com has learnt that the name 'Master Måns' in the list is in fact a song that he recorded the demo for, however we do not believe that he will be available to perform in the Romanian Eurovision Song Contest preselections. As yet, it is not confirmed whether another artist will be put forward by the record company or TVR, or whether Måns, hugely popular with Eurovision Song Contest fans after his Melodifestivalen debut in Sweden last year, will make a shock return to the Eurovision Song Contest world in Romania.
TVR has confirmed to esctoday.com that some of the artists may be subject to change and all will be clarified soon. Stay tuned to esctoday.com for all the latest information on Romania.
