Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023

Prior to the 2023 contest, Romania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 22 times since its first entry in 1994. To this point, its highest placing in the contest has been third place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 2005 with the song "Let Me Try" performed by Luminița Anghel and Sistem, and in 2010 with the song "Playing with Fire" performed by Paula Seling and Ovi. To this point, Romania has qualified to the final 14 out of 17 times since the introduction of semi-finals to the format of the contest in 2004. In 2022, "Llámame" by WRS qualified to the final and placed 18th.[2]

The Romanian national broadcaster, Televiziunea Română (TVR), broadcasts the event within Romania and organizes the selection process for the nation's entry. TVR has consistently selected the Romanian Eurovision entry through national finals that feature a competition among several artists and songs, except in 2021 when the Romanian entry was internally selected. Despite threatening a possible withdrawal in response to the nation's suspended jury votes in the 2022 contest,[3] the broadcaster confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest on 26 August 2022 after dropping all objections towards the EBU.[4][5] TVR had set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Romania, a procedure which the broadcaster opted for once again to select their 2023 entry.[6][7]

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Romania has been placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 11 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[17]

Once all the competing songs for the 2023 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Romania was set to perform in position 3, following the entry from Armenia and before the entry from Estonia.[18]

At the end of the show, Romania was not among the ten countries announced as qualifiers for the final. It was later revealed Romania received zero points along with San Marino and placed 16th.[19]

Points awarded by Romania

Points awarded by Romania (Semi-final)[20] Score Televote 12 points  Slovenia 10 points  Australia 8 points  Albania 7 points  Austria 6 points  Armenia 5 points  Estonia 4 points  Cyprus 3 points  Poland 2 points  Georgia 1 point  Lithuania

Points awarded by Romania (Final)[21] Score Televote Jury 12 points  Moldova  Italy 10 points  Finland  Sweden 8 points  Sweden  Estonia 7 points  Italy  Moldova 6 points  Israel  Cyprus 5 points  Norway  Albania 4 points  Ukraine  Israel 3 points  France  Australia 2 points  Slovenia  Belgium 1 point  Cyprus  Poland