Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011

Logo of this year's selection

Selecția Națională 2011 was the national final format developed by TVR in order to select Romania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. The winner of the national final was determined through the 50/50 combination of votes from a jury panel and a public televote. The competition was televised on TVR1, TVRi and online via tvr.ro.[4]

TVR opened a submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries between 1 October 2010 and 5 November 2010.[5][6] An expert committee reviewed the received submissions between 9 and November 2010. The broadcaster received 77 submissions after the submission deadline passed.[7] Thirteen entries were selected for the national final. The competing entries, alongside with presentation videos for each entry, were announced during a press conference on 15 November 2010 held at the Howard Johnson Hotel in Bucharest.[8] On 20 November 2010, the running order was determined during the TVR1 programme Ne vedem la TVR!, hosted by Marina Almasan-Socaciu.[9]

The national final took place on 31 December 2010 at the TVR studios in Bucharest, hosted by Paula Seling, Ovi and Gianina Corondan.[10] Thirteen songs competed and the winner, "Change" performed by Hotel FM, was determined by the 50/50 combination of the votes from an eleven-member jury panel and public televoting.[11] Each member of the jury voted by assigning scores from 1–8, 10 and 12 points to their preferred songs. The summation of the jury points had produced an overall ranking that was converted to 1–8, 10 and 12 points. Among the members of the jury were Johnny Logan (Irish singer-songwriter, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1980 and 1987), Niamh Kavanagh (Irish singer, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1993), Chiara Siracusa (Maltese singer, represented Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998, 2005 and 2009) and Oliver Vanhoutte (Belgian journalist).[12] The public had the opportunity to submit their vote during a voting window and the top ten songs as ranked by the televote received 1–8, 10 and 12 points. For the second year in a row, the winning composer received a car, this time being a BMW 3 Series (E90).[13] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval acts featured performances by Johnny Logan, Niamh Kavanagh and Chiara Siracusa.[14]

A special concert Düsseldorf, venim! took place on 9 April 2011 at the Nichita Stanescu hall in Bucharest where four Eurovision contestants performed their entries live. The concert was broadcast live by TVR 1 and TVR International while a live webcast was provided by Esctoday.com. Kati Wolf, the Hungarian entrant, was also invited, but she was busy, and couldn't perform at this special concert.

Country	Artist	Song
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Dino Merlin	"Love in Rewind"
Moldova	Zdob si Zdub	"So Lucky"
Romania	Hotel FM	"Change"
Slovakia	TWiiNS	"I'm Still Alive"

Artists from five countries visited Romania during their Eurovision promo tours:

Country	Artist	Song	Date
Bulgaria	Poli Genova	"Na inat"	March 19
Russia	Alexey Vorobyov	"Get You"	April 2
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Dino Merlin	"Love in Rewind"	April 9
Moldova	Zdob si Zdub	"So Lucky"	April 9
Slovakia	TWiiNS	"I'm Still Alive"	April 9

• In the Semi-final 2 Romania came 4th with 111 points: the public awarded Romania 3rd place with 121 points and the jury awarded 5th place with 85 points.
• In the Final Romania came 17th with 77 points: the public awarded Romania 14th place with 79 points and the jury awarded 13th place with 86 points.