Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003

Romania participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with the song "Don't Break My Heart" written by Mihai Alexandru and Nicoleta Alexandru. The song was performed by Nicola, which is the artistic name of singer Nicoleta Alexandru. The Romanian broadcaster Televiziunea Română (TVR) organised the national final Selecția Națională 2003 in order to select the Romanian entry for the 2003 contest in Riga, Latvia. The national final consisted of three shows: two semi-finals on 15 and 22 February 2003, respectively, and a final on 1 March 2003. A total of twenty-four entries were selected and twelve competed in each semi-final. Ten qualifiers were ultimately selected to compete in the final where "Don't Break My Heart" performed by Nicola was selected as the winner after scoring top marks from a seven-member jury panel and a public televote.

Romania competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 24 May 2003. Performing during the show in position 24, Romania placed tenth out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 73 points.

Background
Prior to the 2003 contest, Romania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest four times since its first entry in 1994. To this point, its highest placing in the contest has been ninth place, which the nation achieved in 2002 with the song "Tell Me Why" performed by Monica Anghel and Marcel Pavel.

The Romanian national broadcaster, Televiziunea Română (TVR), broadcasts the event within Romania and organizes the selection process for the nation's entry. The broadcaster confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest on 29 May 2002. 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 2003 entry.

Selecția Națională 2003
Selecția Națională 2003 was the national final organised by TVR in order to select Romania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2003. The competition consisted of three shows: two semi-final featuring twelve songs each to be held on 15 and 22 February 2003, respectively, and a final featuring ten songs to be held on 1 March 2003. All shows took place at the TVR studios in Bucharest, hosted by Kitty Cepraga and Leonard Miron and televised on România 1, TVR 2 and Romania International.

Competing entries
TVR opened a submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries between 15 December 2002 and 17 January 2003. The broadcaster received 233 submissions after the submission deadline passed. A five-member expert committee reviewed the received submissions on 23 January 2002 and selected twenty-four entries for the national final. The competing entries were announced on 25 January 2003. Among the competing artists was Mălina Olinescu, who previously represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998.

Semi-finals
The two semi-finals took place on 15 and 22 February 2003. In each semi-final twelve songs competed and six qualified to the final based on the 50/50 combination of the votes from a seven-member jury panel and public televoting. The members of the jury panel that voted during the semi-finals were: Marcel Dragomir, Monica Anghel, Mihai Pocorschi, Titus Andrei, Andrei Partoș, Petre Magdin and Mircea Drăgan.

Following the semi-finals, Aurelian Temișan withdrew one of his two songs, "Goodbye, Hello, Goodbye", from the final as he didn't want to split his televotes between both songs, while "Dominus" performed by Costi Ioniţă was disqualified from the final due to claims that it had similarities with the song "Ty prosti" by the Russian group Hi-Fi.

Final
The final took place on 1 March 2003. Ten songs competed and the winner, "Don't Break My Heart" performed by Nicola, was determined by the 50/50 combination of the votes from a seven-member jury panel and public televoting. Nicola won the jury vote with 79 points as well as the televote with 11,113 votes. The members of the jury panel that voted in the final were: Mirela Fugaru, Oltea Șerban-Pârâu, Andrei Kerestely, Gabriel Cotabiță, Paul Enigarescu, Ștefan Elefteriu and Horia Moculescu.

At Eurovision


The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 took place at the Skonto Hall in Riga, Latvia, on 24 May 2003. According to the Eurovision rules, the participant list for the contest was composed of: the winning country from the previous year's contest; any countries which had not participated in the previous year's contest; and those which had obtained the highest placing in the previous contest, up to the maximum 26 participants in total. On 29 November 2002, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Romania was set to perform in position 24, following the entry from Estonia and before the entry from Sweden. Romania finished in tenth place with 73 points.

The contest was broadcast in Romania on România 1. The Romanian spokesperson, who announced the results of the Romanian televote during the final, 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 Sweden in the contest.