Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002

Romania participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 with the song "Tell Me Why" written by Ionel Tudor and Mirela Fugaru. The song was performed by Monica Anghel and Marcel Pavel. The Romanian broadcaster Televiziunea Română (TVR) returned to the Eurovision Song Contest after a one-year absence following their relegation from 2001 as one of the bottom six countries in the 2000 contest. TVR organised the national final Selecția Națională 2002 in order to select the Romanian entry for the 2002 contest in Tallinn, Estonia. Eighteen entries were selected to compete in the national final on 3 March 2002 where "Tell Me Why" performed by Monica Anghel and Marcel Pavel was selected as the winner after scoring top marks from an eight-member jury panel and a public televote.

Romania competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 25 May 2002. Performing during the show in position 21, Romania placed ninth out of the 24 participating countries, scoring 71 points.

Background
Prior to the 2002 contest, Romania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest three times since its first entry in 1994. To this point, its highest placing in the contest has been 17th place, which the nation achieved in 2000 with the song "The Moon" performed by Taxi.

The Romanian national broadcaster, Televiziunea Română (TVR), broadcasts the event within Romania and organizes the selection process for the nation's entry. TVR has consistently selected the Romanian Eurovision entry through national finals that feature a competition among several artists and songs, a procedure which the broadcaster opted for once again to select their 2002 entry.

Selecția Națională 2002
Selecția Națională 2002 was the national final organised by TVR in order to select Romania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2002. The competition took place at the TVR studios in Bucharest on 3 March 2002 and was hosted by Leonard Miron. The show was televised on România 1 and Romania International.

Competing entries
TVR opened a submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries between 8 January 2002 and 10 February 2002. The broadcaster received 165 submissions after the submission deadline passed. A five-member expert committee reviewed the received submissions on 14 February 2002 and selected eighteen entries for the national final. The competing entries were announced on 15 February 2002.

Final
The final took place on 3 March 2002. Eighteen songs competed and the winner, "Tell Me Why" performed by Monica Anghel and Marcel Pavel, was determined by the 50/50 combination of the votes from an eight-member jury panel and public televoting.

At Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 took place at Saku Suurhall in Tallinn, Estonia, on 25 May 2002. The participants list included the previous year's winning country, the "Big Four" countries, consisting of, , and the , any eligible countries which did not compete in the 2001 contest, and countries which had obtained the highest average points total at the previous year's contest, up to 24 total participants. In 2002, Romania automatically qualified to the final due to their relegation in the previous year. On 9 November 2001, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Romania was set to perform in position 21, following the entry from Malta and before the entry from Slovenia.

The contest was broadcast in Romania on România 1. The Romanian spokesperson, who announced the votes of the Romanian jury during the show, was Leonard Miron.

Voting
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Romania and awarded by Romania in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Macedonia in the contest.