TVR, the Romanian national broadcaster, has confirmed that Romania will not compete at the forthcoming 2024 Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden.

Thus Romania joins the list of countries who have confirmed their non participation at the upcoming Eurovision 2024 edition in Sweden.

TVR’s Board of Directors held a meeting earlier today in order to discuss the country’s Eurovision 2024 participation and submitted the matter to a vote. The results were as follows:  5 votes in favour, 4 votes against and 4 abstentions. Hence the Romanian broadcaster will not partake at the forthcoming 2024 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo.

The EBU had given a special extension period to TVR to confirm its Eurovision 2024 participation. Financial constraints have led to Romania’s withdrawal from the upcoming Eurovision competition.

We hope to see Romania return to the competition in 2025.

TVR’s press release reads:

Financial constraints and the desire to represent Romania at a performing level are the reasons why the Board of Directors (CA) decided that TVR will not participate in this year’s edition of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC).

The decision was taken in today’s meeting, January 25, with 5 votes “for”, 4 “abstentions” and 4 “against”.

Also today, the Board of Directors approved the SRTv budget for 2024, which does not contain enough funds to guarantee Romania’s participation according to the increasingly high standards of the international competition.

This year, in addition to established productions, TVR is allocating significant resources to other priority productions and projects. Among them: the transmission of the Summer Olympic Games in Paris, the continuation of the re-technological process – the automation of the broadcast SRTv channels, investments in the news production system, the continuation of investments in the new headquarters of TVR Craiova and other long-delayed modernization projects.

Although it benefited from an extension of the deadline for registering for the competition from 2024, thanks to a traditional collaboration with European The Broadcasting Union (EBU), the organizer of the contest, TVR is forced to postpone the participation in the Eurovision Song Contest for a future edition.

Eurovision 2024 will take place in the city of Malmö in Sweden, the country whose representative won the 2023 edition of the contest. Over the years, several countries, such as Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina or North Macedonia, have decided not to participate in the international competition.

Romania in Eurovision

Romania debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 and is yet to win the compeitition. The country achieved its best results in our beloved show in 2005 with Luminita Anghel and in 2010 with Paula Seling and Ovi when it placed 3rd in the Grand Final.

Romania has competed 23 times in the competition.

In 2023 Theodor Andrei represented Romania at the Eurovision Song Contest in Turin with his entry ‘ D.G.T (Off and On‘.

Source: TVR/ESCToday
Photo credit: Corinne Cumming/ EBU