Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest
Romania debuted at the contest in 1994 and has placed in the top 10 six times. Their best result so far has been finishing in 3rd place with the notable and energetic performance of Luminița Anghel and Sistem in 2005 with 'Let Me Try'. Additionally, in 2010 Paula Seling and Ovi also finished 3rd with 'Playing With Fire', featuring some iconic staging and stellar pyrotechnic fire.
For their past 10 appearances at Eurovision, Romania has qualified seven times for the Grand Final. Their best result in recent history was Ilinca and Alex Florea with 'Yodel It!' finishing a notable 7th in 2017. Last year, WRS took Romania to the Grand Final with 'Llámame' which finished in 18th place.
2023 Entry: Theodor Andrei - 'D.G.T. (Off and On)'
Theodor will compete in the first half of semi-final 2
My Eurovision Scoreboard ranking: 36th out of 37 entries
Odds to win ranking: 36th
(Rankings as of 19 April 2023)
About the artist
Bucharest-born Theodor is an 18-year-old singer, songwriter and actor. He has had an interest in the performing arts since a young age and in 2017 he took part in Romania's 'The Voice the Kids' where he reached the semi final. Just three years later he entered another talent show, this time 'X Factor Romania'.
Theodor has been very active at music festivals both locally and internationally and has released many songs, mostly in Romanian. In 2017 he released his first single, 'Young and Sweet'. In 2022, Theodor had a big year, releasing his first album titled 'Fragil', and won a multitude of awards including the Myosotis Award for Best Creation by a Singer-Songwriter, for his song 'Artist', the Mihaela Runceanu Festival Grand Trophy and the Alexandria Pop Fest Festival Grand Trophy.
He says his music style is a mix of different genres and cites his influences as Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Aerosmith, Kiss, Bon Jovi, and 2021 Eurovision winner Maneskin's Damiano David. Theodor recently released a medley of all 37 songs from this year's competition on his YouTube account.
About the song
'D.G.T. (Off and On)' was originally released in 2022 as a duet with singer Luca Udățeanu, on his debut album 'Fragil'. The song has been cut down from its original album version of almost 4 minutes.
Theodor wrote this song along with Mikail Jahed, Luca de Mezzo and Luca Udățeanu. This is the first of Theodor's songs to include English. The song is essentially about the turmoil of a passionate and toxic love affair.
How Theodor Andrei was selected for Eurovision
Romania's national selection, 'Selecția Națională', took place on February 11 with 12 artists who were chosen for the selection by a jury.
Theodor performed in the middle of the pack and unlike the previous year, 2023's Romanian representative was chosen by 100% public vote. Theodor won on 5,230 votes, ahead of Andreea D Folclor Orchestra's 'Periniţa mea' with 4,845 votes.
2023 was not the first time that Theodor attempted to represent Romania At Eurovision. He told ESCBubble:
"Eurovision is my childhood dream. I remember that every year I watched Eurovision with my family when I was a child and I kept telling myself that I would be there too. And I tried 3 years in a row. Initially, everyone told me that I was crazy, that I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, that it would be difficult, and that everyone would criticize me."
Romania will compete in semi-final 2 on May 11 (European time) in Liverpool.
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