Romania | Next 3 Qualifiers from Selectia Nationala 2018!
Romania kicked off their marathon National Final last week in the city of Focsani where three acts from 12 advanced to the final. Tonight the second of five semi-finals was held in the western city of Timisoara and saw 12 acts battle it out for a place in the final on 25th February 2018 in Bucharest. This semi-final saw the return of familiar face MIHAI, who has been trying for a while now to return to the Eurovision stage, and fan-favourite Serena and her racey up-tempo, infectious dance number Safari.
The show opened with a rendition of Salvador Sobral's winning Eurovision song sung by Ricardo Caria, who later returned as a closing act singing a song about the host city of ESC 2018, Lisbon. The hosts of the contest, Cezar Ouatu and Diana Dumitrscu, then introduced the jury, one of whom was none other than Ilinca Bacila, who, this week, did not need google translate to throw shade at the contestants (see Waleska's performance from SF1). The show opened with rock band Pragu' de Sus and closed by collaborating artists, Jukebox and Bella Santiago. Watching through the acts was like being treated to a plethora of genres of all kinds making Selectia Nationala one of the more diverse national finals. After each act had performed, they got a small piece of feedback from one of the five judges and we were moved swiftly on to the next act. When all 12 artists had performed their songs, the jury collated their points together and began to reveal the singers who had qualified for the final.
These were the 12 competing songs, however only 3 would make it to the final:
1. Pragu' de Sus - "Te Voi Chema"
2. Miruna Diaconescu - "Run For You"
3. MIHAI - "Heaven"
4. Othello - "Noi Suntem Padure"
5. Alessandro Danescu - "Breaking Up"
6. Jessie Banes - "Lightning Strikes"
7. Romeo Zaharia - "Maybe This Time"
8. Rafael & Andy - "We Are One"
9. Serena - "Safari"
10. Endless feat. Maria Grosu - "Thinking About You"
11. Meriem - "End The Battle"
12. Jukebox feat. Bella Santiago - "Auzi Cum Bate"
Jury points were distributed in the standard ESC fashion (1-8, 10 and 12) and after all the points had been given out the three acts which qualified for the final were:
1. Jukebox feat. Bellasantiago - 58pts
2. Rafael & Andy - 40pts
3. MIHAI - 39pts
4. Jessie Banes - 26pts
5. Miruna Diaconescu - 22pts
6. Endless feat. Maria Grosu - 21pts
7. Pragu' de Sus - 19pts
8. Othello - 17pts
9. Serena - 17pts
10. Romeo Zaharia - 16pts
11. Alessandro Danescu - 15pts
12. Meriem - 0pts
Fan-favourite before the show, Serena, failed to impress the jury earning only a few points in total meaning that she did not advance to the final but Jukebox and Bella Santiago seem to be on their way to a good place in the final after receiving top marks from 4/5 jurors.
What do you make of the results? Do you think that Romania has a winner on their hands from this semi final? Let us know what you think!
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