20-year-old Roxen (Larisa Roxana Giurgiu) has been selected to sing for Romania at Eurovision this year. Born in Cluj-Napoca the Global Records artist has risen to prominence after collaboration in Sickotoy's 'You Don't Love Me' which charted all over Europe & her single 'Ce-ți cântă dragostea' which both feature regularly on large radio stations locally.
Romania is taking a new approach to Eurovision with the full national final Selecția Națională being benched this year. Instead internally selected artist Roxen will perform five songs to in a 'mini' national final on March 1. A 50% jury, 50% public vote will be cast to select their entry for 2020 - a very different approach to recent years. The songs have been derived from dedicated songwriting camp for Roxen with focus on sound, originality, style diversity and message. Currently the five options are still to be released.
Roxen's style and back catalogue are a good representation of music commonly heard on Romanian radio with the distinct, contemporary, fresh style it is known for. It doesn't take much diving into Romanian Spotify playlists to get a feel for the unique spin they put on pop music - slight ethnic touches mixed with beefy bass, synth and high production quality. For years Romania has quietly entered the global charts - creating top radio hits that many are not even aware have Romanian roots. It's promising that Roxen may bring to Eurovision this side of their music industry yet to be witnessed at Eurovision. Global Records are known for producing many top artists such as Inna, Antonia, Carla's Dreams, Delia, Irina Rimes & Vanotek.
The announcement was very well received by the online Romanian Eurovision community: