20-year-old singer will represent Romania at 2020 Eurovision song contest

Roxen, a 20-year-old singer from Cluj-Napoca, will represent Romania at the 2020 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, which will take place in Rotterdam.

Roxen started singing at the age of 7 and won several musical competitions. At present, she is the 3rd most-played artist on Romanian radio and has two songs in the radio charts: You Don’t Love Me (which has 8 million views on YouTube) and Ce-ti Canta Dragostea (9 million views and the most-Shazamed Romanian song), according to Eurovision.tv.

This year, the first phase of Romania’s national selection focused on the identification of the most representative voice, evaluated by a specialized commission based on criteria such as vocal skills, interpretation and musical empathy, local News.ro reported. The public television TVR had three names on the shortlist - Roxen, Diana V and Cezar Gună.

On March 1, Roxen will perform five songs in Romania's national final on TV, and both a jury and the public will pick their favourite song. In case of a tie, the public vote will prevail.

This year’s Eurovision will take place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The first semifinal will be held on May 12, the second semifinal is scheduled for May 14, while the Grand Final will be held on May 16. Romania’s representative Roxen will perform in the second half of the first semifinal.

Last year, Romania has failed to qualify for the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest, for the second consecutive year. Ester Peony was the country’s representative at Eurovision 2019.

The Romanian representatives to Eurovision have qualified to every final since 2004, the year when the semifinals system was introduced. The only exceptions so far were 2016, when Romania was kicked out of Eurovision because of the national television TVR’s debts to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), and 2018 and 2019 when Romania’s representatives failed to qualify to the final.

Romania joined the Eurovision contest in 1994 and it never managed to win the competition so far. It managed to finish in top five on three occasions, and in 2005 and 2010 it ended the final on the third place.

(Photo source: Facebook/Eurovision Romania)