Romanian ranks third in the Eurovision Song Contest
Romania’s Alexandra Căpitănescu wins third place at the Eurovision, a ranking Romania only achieved in 2005 and 2010.
Sorin Iordan, 18.05.2026, 13:50
Romania came in 3rd place at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The song “Choke me” performed by Alexandra Căpitănescu and her rock band collected 296 points, equalling the achievement of Luminiţa Anghel and the band Sistem in 2005 and the duet Paula Seling and Ovi in 2010. “Choke Me” also came in 2nd in a ranking of public vote. The competition hosted by the Austrian capial Vienna was won for the first time by Bulgaria’s representative, Dara, with the song “Banagaranga”, produced by the Romanian producer and singer and song writer Cristian Tarcea, known by his stage name Monoir. Bulgaria won 516 points and was followed by Israel’s representative, Noam Bettan, whose song “Michelle” collected 343 points.
The Romanian delegation returned to Bucharest on Sunday afternoon and was greeted at the Henri Coandă International Airport by the fans. Live on Romanian public television, Alexandra Căpitănescu thanked everyone present and those who supported them:
“Thank you so much for being with us. Some of you have been there for us since the beginning, when no one knew us, when we were struggling to get the world to notice us. It was an extraordinarily beautiful experience, but also very difficult, but now I’m glad that we ranked 3rd and that we were 2nd in the public vote. The public’s intuition is the strongest. So thank you once again! I am very lucky to have such a beautiful team. Thank you, the guys in the band, Bogdan, Matei, Luca, Thomas and Daria. There have been so many people at home who have supported us. Romania has demonstrated at the moment that it can be a united people, who supports its talent. We’d also like to thank the music industry and the artists who have supported us and who have promoted us and to all the festivals! Thank you very, very much!”
This year’s edition of the Eurovision contest, which was in its 70th year, was not without controversy. Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Iceland and Slovenia boycotted the event in protest against the presence of Israel, which they accuse of continuing the bloody conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Another hot topic, at least locally, was the way the jury in the Republic of Moldova scored the performance of the Romanian representative. Alexandra’s song received only 3 points from the Moldovan jury, while the Moldovan public awarded it all 12 points. On the other hand, the Romanian jury gave 12 points to Moldova’s song “Viva, Moldova!”, sung by Satoshi, while the Romanian public gave it 10 points. The Republic of Moldova finished the competition in 8th place.
The Eurovision competition is organised every year by the European Broadcasting Union, the largest association of public television networks in Europe. The Romanian Television has taken part in the contest since 1993. Apart from finishing in third place three times so far, Romania also finished in the top 5 in 2006, when Mihai Trăistariu’s song “Tornero” finished the contest in 4th place. According to tradition, the winning country will host the competition the following year, so Eurovision 2027 will take place in the neighbouring Bulgaria.
