All songs for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 have been selected. During the weeks between the national final season and the actual Eurovision Song Contest, we will introduce all 43 entries in random order. Part nineteen of the series is dedicated to the Romanian entry.

Basic information

Performers:	Hotel FM
Song:	Change
Language:	English
Music:	Gabriel B�ruţa
Lyrics:	Alexandra Ivan, Gabriel B�ruţa
Draw:	14th in the second semi final

The song

Change is a mid-tempo show tune. The lyrics tell people to come along because one person cannot change the world on his own:

You gotta make believe
And make your dreams come true
It ain’t that hard to do…

I can’t change, I can’t change the world alone
I need you all, everybody
Start dreamin’ of it

The performers and songwriters

Hotel FM was founded by lead singer Gabriel B�ruţa in 2005. Since then, they have mainly been a live act performing at various festivals in Romania. The other band members are David Bryan from the United Kingdom and Alex Szuz, who is also part of a Romanian Pink Floyd tribute band.

In 2010, Hotel FM competed in the Romanian national final for the Eurovision Song Contest. With their song Come as one, they finished fourth with ten points from the jury and four points from the televoting. This year, they returned with the new song Change. It won the jury vote and finished second in the televoting getting a total score high enough to guarantee them the ticket to Düsseldorf. The song was composed by Gabriel BÄ�ruÅ£a and he also wrote the lyrics along with Alexandra Ivan.

The national selection

13 acts competed in the Romanian national final. The winner was chosen by a jury and televoting.

Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest

Romania had a very rough start in the contest. The country did not only not finish higher than 17th in its first three participations, it also finished last in the Eastern semi final in 1993 and in the internal semi final in 1996. However, in 2002 it turned: Romania would finish in the top ten four times over the following five years and win the semi final of the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest. In Oslo, the country achieved a second third place after three less successful particpations resulting in a 13th, 20th and 19th place respectively.

Statistics

This will be Romania's 13th participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. It will be the seventh time that the country is represented by a duo or group and it will also be the eighth in eleven times since the abolishment of the language rule in 1999 that the Romanian entry is performed entirely in English. Another two entries were partly performed in English.

Change is the 14th song to be performed in the second semi final. It is preceeded by the ballad from Slovenia and it is followed by the dance pop song from Estonia. A clear advantage might therefore be the fact that it is performed in the middle of two very different songs.

Îi dorim României È�i Hotel FM mult noroc Å�i un rezultat bun in Düsseldorf!

Videos

Live performance in the national final:

The preview video:

Hotel FM in the 2010 national final:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTHCDoyz6D8

Tomorrow, we will take a look at the Swedish entry.

Previous parts of the series:

1. Estonia
2. Italy
3. Croatia
4. Slovakia
5. Lithuania
6. Finland
7. Switzerland
   
8. Ukraine
9. Norway
10. Moldova
11. Belgium
12. Azerbaijan
13. Ireland
14. Portugal
    
15. Austria
16. Latvia
17. France
18. Bosnia & Herzegovina