Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004

Romania participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 with the song "I Admit" written by George Popa and Irina Gligor. The song was performed by Sanda. The Romanian broadcaster Televiziunea Română (TVR) organised the national final Selecția Națională 2004 in order to select the Romanian entry for the 2004 contest in Istanbul, Turkey. The national final consisted of three shows: two semi-finals on 28 February and 6 March 2004, respectively, and a final on 13 March 2004. A total of twenty-three entries were selected and six were selected to advance to the final from each semi-final. The twelve qualifiers competed in the final where "I Admit" performed by Sanda was selected as the winner after scoring top marks from a seven-member jury panel and a public televote.

As one of ten highest placed finishers in the 2003 contest Iceland directly qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 15 May 2004. Performing in position 23, Romania placed eighteenth out of the 24 participating countries with 18 points.

Background
Prior to the 2004 contest, Romania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest five 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. In 2003, "Don't Break My Heart" by Nicola placed 10th in the contest.

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 2004 entry.

Selecția Națională 2004
Selecția Națională 2004 was the national final organised by TVR in order to select Romania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004. The competition consisted of three shows: two semi-finals featuring up to twelve songs to be held on 28 February 2004 and 6 March 2004, respectively, and a final featuring twelve songs to be held on 13 March 2004. All shows took place at the TVR studios in Bucharest and were televised on România 1 and Romania International.

Competing entries
TVR opened a submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries between 17 January 2004 and 9 February 2004. The broadcaster received 156 submissions after the submission deadline passed. A five-member expert committee reviewed the received submissions on 12 February 2004 and selected twenty-four entries for the national final. The competing entries were announced on 16 February 2004. The song "Listen to My Heart", written by Mihai Ogăşanu and Claudia Pavel, was later disqualified from the competition after performer Delia did not show up for TVR's video recording of the song.

Semi-finals
The two semi-finals took place on 28 February and 6 March 2004. The first semi-final which featured twelve competing songs was hosted by Mălina Olinescu who represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 and Dan Teodorescu who represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 as part of Taxi, while the second semi-final which featured eleven competing songs was hosted by Monica Anghel and Marcel Pavel who both represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002, joined by Cătălin Măruță and Alina Sorescu which hosted segments from the green room. In each semi-final six entries 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: Mircea Drăgan, Viorel Gavrilă, Andrei Partoș, Eugen Mihăescu, Mihai Pocorschi, Irina Radu and Robert Anghelescu.

Final
The final took place on 13 March 2004, hosted by Dan Teodorescu who represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 as part of Taxi and Nicola who represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with Cătălin Măruță and Alina Sorescu hosting segments from the green room. Twelve songs competed and the winner, "I Admit" performed by Sanda Ladoși, was determined by the 50/50 combination of the votes from a seven-member jury panel and public televoting. Ladoși won the jury vote as well as the televote with 4,994 votes. The members of the jury panel that voted in the final were: Irina Radu, Andrei Partoș, Mirela Fugaru, Mihai Alexandru, Laurențiu Duță, Ionel Tudor and Adrian Ordean.

In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval acts featured performances from Șerban Huidu and Mihai Găinușă, Romanian 1994 Eurovision entrant, Israeli 1998 Eurovision winner Dana International and competition hosts Mălina Olinescu, Dan Teodorescu with Taxi, Monica Anghel and Marcel Pavel, and Nicola.

At Eurovision


It was announced that the competition's format would be expanded to include a semi-final in 2004. According to the rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country, the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the ten highest placed finishers in the 2003 contest are required to qualify from the semi-final in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from the semi-final progress to the final. As Romania finished tenth in the 2003 contest, the nation automatically qualified to compete in the final on 15 May 2004. On 23 March 2004, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Romania was set to perform in position 24 in the final, following the entry from Turkey and before the entry from Sweden. Romania placed eighteenth in the final, scoring 18 points.

The two shows were broadcast in Romania on România 1. The Romanian spokesperson, who announced the results of the Romanian televote during the final, was Andreea Marin.

Voting
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Romania and awarded by Romania in the semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Greece in the semi-final and the final of the contest.