Eurovision Romania semi-finals

Another three songs have qualified to the final of Romanias national tryouts for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.

Mihai Pelin, 19.02.2018, 13:16

The Humans, Teodora Dinu and Dora Gaitanovici on Sunday qualified to the final round of Romania’s national tryouts for the 2018 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, which was hosted by Sighisoara, a medieval city steeped in history. The previous semi-final was held last week in the salt mine in Turda, one of Romania’s most spectacular tourist objectives. The show was held on the very stage where, 90 years ago, the famous composer, violinist, pianist and conductor George Enescu, performed live. “Thank you! We really want to go to Lisbon and we hope the people will vote for us”, the members of the band The Humans announced after the jury made public their decision to include their song, Goodbye, in the final, adding the audience is in for a surprise for the final to be hosted by Bucharest.

In turn, Teodora Dinu was happy the jury liked her song, Fly, and said she was very nervous. “I hope to impress the jury in the Grand Final”, she went on to say. Finally, Dora Gaitanovici, who performed a song called “Without You”, was also very excited about making it to the final round and plans to live up to everyone’s expectations. “It will be an even better show than tonight”, the artist said. The band Directia 5 performed on Sunday as an interval act. Each of the six members of the band The Humans specialize in funk-pop-rock. In turn, Teodora Dinu made her debut as a vocalist at the age of five and has so far taken part in over 60 national and international music contests and festivals, winning prizes every time.

Dora Gaitanovici is studying piano, saxophone and bel canto and is still a high-school student with the “Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu” National College in Buzau. She plans on enrolling with the Music University in Bucharest. Joining Sunday’s winners in the Grand Final, scheduled to take place on February 25 in Bucharest, will be Feli, Alexia & Matei, Jukebox featuring Bella Santiago, Echoes, Eduard Santha, MIHAI, RAFAEL & Friends, Erminio Sinni & Tiziana Camelin, Xandra, Vyros, Claudia Andas and TIRI. This year the national tryouts for the Eurovision Song Contest were held under the slogan “Eurovision unites Romania!” For the first time 60 songs were included in the competition, 12 for each of the five semi-finals.

Eurovision is being held every year by the European Broadcasting Union, the largest network of public television broadcasters in Europe. Held uninterruptedly for 60 years, the show has become one of the longest-standing and most popular TV shows in the world. Romania’s best performance at Eurovision along the years was achieved in 2005 by Luminita Anghel and the band Sistem, who ranked third, just like Paula Seling and Ovidiu Cernauteanu in 2010. Mihai Traistariu came in fourth at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest.