News - Live: National final in Romania | Eurovision Song Contest News - Azerbaijan 2012 

The show

The show to be broadcast on TVR1 will start at 20:10 CET (21:10 local time) and it will be hosted by Horia Brenciu and Valentina Pelinel at the Globus Circus Arena in Bucharest. 16 acts will present one song each and the winner will be chosen by a mixture of five regional juries (from Craiova, Timi�oara, Ia�i, Clui and Bucharest) and televoting (50% each).

How to watch?

A webcast will be made available here and for RealPlayer here.  

Participants

Composer/Lyricist in brackets.

1. R�zvan Krivach - Jack Pott
   (R�zvan Krivach, Anca Maria�/R�zvan Krivach, Tudor Rogoz, Gia �andru)
2. Luminiţa Anghel, Tony Tomas & Adrian Piper - Save their lives
   (Eduard Carcota/Melinda Bartas)
3. Paula Seling & Ovi - Playing with fire
   (Ovi)
   
4. Dalma - I'm running
   (Cornel Ilie)
5. Alexandra Ungureanu - Crazy
   (Sandy Deac/Alexandra Ungureanu)
6. Pasager - Running out of time
   (Daniel  BouroÅ�u/Ovidiu Anton)
7. Lora & Sonny Flame - Come along
   (F-Charm, Pol/Lora & Sonny Flame)
   
8. HotelFM - Come as one
   (Gabriel Baruţ�/Alexandra Ivan)
   
9. Zero - Lay me down
   (Zero)
   
10. Lucia Dumitrescu - See you in heaven
    (Mircea Romcesca)
    
11. Paula Seling & Kamara Ghedi - It's not too late
    (Andrei Tudor/Andreea Andrei, Kamara)
    
12. Lulu & The Puppets - Searching for perfect emotion
    (Vlad Greţu)
    
13. Anda Adam & Connect-R - Surrender
    (Razvan Matache & Zozo)
14. Tina G. - Love is war
    (Cosmin Mustaţa)
15. Alexa - Baby
    (Mihai Alexandru/Mihai Alexandru, Maria Renee Sanchez Ramos)
    
16. C�t�lin Josan - Around around
    (C�t�lin Josan)

Your opinion

• You can vote for your favourite song in our poll here. 

LIVE

The show has started with a circus performance including dancers, acrobats and fires.

The presenters are now on stage. After a while in the green room, the presenters are talking now with the juries all around Romania.

The theme of this year's Selectia Nationala is being presented. The animated girl is explaining how to vote in the national final.

1. Razvan Krivach - Jackpot

The song is an electronic jazzy song which also involves operatic acts. Razvan is dressed from head to toe in black and white and his face is covered too. He is accompanied by dancers which are fully covered too. A nice opening for tonight's show, the song is kind of catchy and performed not badly but it might be hard for it to success in the Eurovision. The staging of the song is one of the most impressive ones we have seen in national finals this year.

2. Luminita Anghel, Tony Tomas & Adrian Piper - Save Their Lives

Here comes the 2005 Romanian representative, Luminita Angel. She finished 4th in Kyiv with the song Let me try.Tonight, she's performing with Tony and Adrian. The song is an uptempo ballad. Luminita is wearing a white dress while the guys are wearing suits.

Although the melody is catchy, the vocal performance of the trio doesn't seem to be at its best tonight.Luminita overdoes it and their voices hardly blend. Lots of notes amiss too. A dancer takes centerstage and in the end of the performance a child enters the stage and frees butterflies along with Luminita.

3. Paula Seling & Ovi - Playing With Fire

Paula tried her luck in the Romanian national final of 2008, and was disqualified from the 2000 national final because her song was published too early. Ovi tried his luck in the Norwegian MGP in 2006 and 2008, and tonight they are here together. Playing with fire is an uptempo and extra catchy song. They both sit next to connected keyboards and their vocals are good together. Paula looks spectacular and she is perfect vocally even though the song tends to be demanding at points.

Fire comes out from here and there and four backing singers are helping out too. May we hear it again in the end of the evening?

4. Dalma - I'm running

Dalma took part in last year's Romanian semifinals with Love was never her friend. This time she's back with an uptempo song and four male dancers. An additional dancer roams the stage in a huge balloon. The performance is highly professional and energetic with Dalma and her dancers covering the entire stage and offering a fun show. Vocally, though, she seemed to be struggling and went off key several times.

5. Alexandra Ungureanu - Crazy

A black angel on stage with a band: drummer, two guitarists and two backing singers. They all perform an pop rock number and laser effects appear during the performance. Alexandra is a famous singer in Romania and took part in the Romanian selection in previous years.

6. Pasager - Running out of time

Another rock band on stage with soloist, two guitarists, keyboarder, drummer and a backing singer. Smoke goes out of the stage and fireworks out of the guitars.The song is performed very good and could easily be a radio-hit, but it might not do well in the Eurovision. It reminds of Switzerland's latest entry, The highest heights. All band members are wearing black tonight. The performance although far from vocally perfect is fun as all member of Pasager seem to be genuinely enjoying this.

7. Lora & Sonny Flame - Come Along
A hip-hop song like of the best American hits, but 100% Romanian. It involves many Romanian sounds, including those of Lora and Sonny who are accompanied by two dancers each. The crowd seem to like this song very much and the performance is excellent. Will the Romanian nation send this to Oslo? we will have to wait and see.

8. Hotel FM - Come As One

Back to the ballads and the stage is full of smoke. Hotel FM is another band but a harp replaces the guitars. The song is powerful and the vocal performance impressive. The theme is of an ecological nature, the stage looking like a forest. A male dancer dressed as a tree and a female one playing the fairy, maybe, act more like distractions.

Halfway through the songs, it's time for a commercial break.

9. Zero - Lay Me Down

Like many other of tonight's participants, Zero already took part in the selection in former years. The soloist along with two guitarists, a drummer and a keyboarder continue with their easy rock style of music this time too.The vocals aren't among the strongest we've heard tonight but they are not out of tune. A pleasant radio hit, well produced.

11. Paula Seling & Kamara - It's Not Too Late

We haven't seen Paula since song 3, and here she is again, this time with Kamara. This time the stage is darker and she sits at  a piano. Between the chorus and the verses, Kamara helps her with french rap. They are accompanied by three backing singers and this song is a simple Eurovision-ish ballad. She is wearing a long white dress and her looks certainly help catch the audience's attention.

12. Lulu & The Puppets - Searching For Perfect Emotion

Another rock band for tonight. The lead singer is surrounded by fire and the band who accompanies him is made of...puppets, who play miniature guitar and drums.He's also accompanied by three human backing singers. The song is performed very well, although the vocals get shaky at points, however this kind of songs can fit radio stations better than the Eurovision Song Contest. Overall, the songs twists and turns making it difficult to follow.

13. Anda Adam & Connect-R - Surrender

Connect-R previously represented Moldova in Eurovision 2006 along with Natalia Gordienko and Arsenium.This song is another hip-hop act made of 100% Romanian touches. Anda is standing high above all with a dress that touches the floor. The dress is gone and Anda remains in a golden-black outfit with Connect-R standing under her inside a box.The duo are accompanied by some male dancers and smoke. The overall performance is a bit weak and it might not win tonight as well.

14. Tina G - Love Is War

Tina is chained insde a heart next to a guitarist. She goes out of the heart and walks around the stage, where you can find a drummer and two backing singers. This is an electronic pop-rock number which is not very special. Along with her red her and her black-silvery outfit, Tina performs it very good though her vocals seem to miss something. The song ends with Tina G chained back inside the wire heart panting in a suggestive way.

15. Alexa - Baby

Alexa took part twice in last year's Romanian semifinals, failing to qualify to the final. She is here again with a slow pop-rock song. She is wearing a pink dress and accompanied by a band which is playing a cello, a violin, drums and guitar. The song is repetitive what makes it easy to remember, and she performs it very good, vocally and visually.

16. Catalin Josan - Around Around

As for many others, this is not Catalin's first time on the stage. People (and Jari Sillanpaa) said that it takes two to tango, but how can Catalin decide out of his three dancers? His song is an uptempo tango song with a bit of Romanian motives.The dancers are holding hand-held fans and dressed minimally, while Catalin himself is wearing black. The stage is full of smoke and fireworks and it can be considered as a strong contender tonight.

Paula Seling and Ovi win by a land slide topping both the televote and jury vote.