Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026

Romania is set to be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "Choke Me", written by Alexandra Căpitănescu, Călin-Alexandru Grăjdan, Elvis Silitră and Ștefan Condrea, and performed by Căpitănescu herself. The Romanian participating broadcaster, Televiziunea Română (TVR), organised the national final Selecția națională 2026 in order to select its entry for the contest.

Prior to the 2026 contest, Televiziunea Română (TVR) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Romania twenty-three times since its first entry in 1994.^[1] Its highest placing in the contest, to this point, had been third place, 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. The country had never failed to qualify for the final until 2018, after which it experienced a decline in results and only qualified once in five participations. In 2023, "D.G.T. (Off and On)" performed by Theodor Andrei failed to qualify for the final.^[1]

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, TVR organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster had consistently selected its entry through the format Selecția națională, consisting of televised finals to choose the performer, song or both to compete at Eurovision. Romania did not participate in the contest in 2024 and 2025 due to financial difficulties.^[2] In April 2025, the general director of TVR, Dan Turturică, stated the country would return once the relationship between TVR and local music producers is "reset".^[3] TVR confirmed its intention to take part in the 2026 contest on 30 October 2025,^[4] announcing in January 2026 that Selecția națională would be held again to select its entry.^[5]

Selecția națională 2026 was the national final format developed by TVR in order to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. The competition consisted of a semi-final phase and a final, and was held between 9 February and 4 March 2026 at the TVR studios in Bucharest.^[6] Both phases were broadcast online via the streaming platform tvrplus.ro, with the final also aired on TVR 1 and TVR Info.^[7] All broadcasts were also avalaible with optional interpretation in Romanian Sign Language by Andreea Darie, Lena Dermengiu and Marieta Negru.^[5]

The selection took place in four stages: the received entries were first assessed by an expert committee on 5 and 6 February 2026; 68 of them (later reduced to 67) were selected to be performed at a semi-final, where the selected artists performed their songs in front of a jury over three days on 9, 10 and 11 February 2026 as part of a series of sessions titled Atelier deschis Eurovision 2026 ("Eurovision 2026 open workshop"), after which ten finalists were selected and announced on 12 February 2026 during the evening broadcast of the news program Telejurnal; as part of an online wildcard round, two additional finalists (originally planned to be one) were selected from among five artists who did not advance from the previous phase based on the number of views of their semi-final performances on YouTube and were announced on 15 February 2026; at the final, which was held on 4 March 2026, the winner was determined exclusively by a jury vote.^[8][7][9]

The jury for the competition was composed of singer Andreea Bălan, composer Andrei Tudor, music producers Marius Dia and Cristian "Monoir" Tarcea, and journalists Elena Popa, Doru Ionescu and Cristian Marica Rădoi.^[10]

On 14 January 2026, TVR published the rules of the competition, opening a window for interested artists and composers to submit their entries until 2 February.^[5] Each submission was subject to a fee of 500 lei (€98).^[11] At the end of the submission period, 101 entries had been received.^[12]

On 6 February 2026, the list of the 68 artists and songs participating in the semi-final was released by TVR. Among the selected competing artists were Ciro de Luca and Wrs, who represented Romania in 2007 (as part of the group Todomondo) and 2022 respectively, as well as Dya, who represented Romania in the 2006 junior contest as part of the group New Star Music.^[7][13] Zya appeared on the original list released by TVR but withdrew on 9 February.^[6]

The final took place on 4 March 2026. The show was hosted by Giulia Nahmany and Daniel Nuță, with Laura Fronoiu and Marius Popa hosting segments from the audience, and Alexandra Gavrilă, Iulian Selea and Răzvan Petre hosting backstage segments. In addition to the competing entries, juror Andreea Bălan also performed as an interval act.^[15]

"Choke Me" drew controversy for its title and subject matter, with the phrase "choke me," repeated thirty times in the song, being criticized for glamorising strangulation and sexual violence.^[17] Campaigners against sexual violence have described the song as "reckless and dangerous," drawing specific focus on the lyrics "I want you to choke me" and "make my lungs explode".^[18] Claire McGlynn, a professor at Durham University, claimed that the song was “playing fast and loose with young women’s lives”; In defense, Căpitănescu argued that the song's message was metaphorical and representative being overwhelmed by emotion and self-doubt.^[19]

On 18 March, TVR released a statement further defending Căpitănescu and the song, stating that the song's stage concept was intended to "highlight the metaphorical nature" and "exclude any literal interpretation of the lyrics."^[20]

The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 will take place at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria, and consist of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 12 and 14 May and the final on 16 May 2026. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Italy 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 will progress to the final. On 12 January 2026, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country will perform in; the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.^[21] Romania was scheduled for the first half of the second semi-final.^[22]