"Don't Break My Heart" is a song recorded by Romanian singer Nicola for her

greatest hits album A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

''Best of Nicola'' (2003) and fourth studio album ''De mă vei chema'' (2004). Written by Nicola and produced by her then-husband Mihai Alexandru, it was released as a CD single in 2003 by

Cat Music Cat Music is a record label based in Bucharest, Romania, that holds 30% of the market share and a catalog of more than 8,500 songs. Its YouTube channel is the most popular of a Romanian label, with over 6.2 million subscribers and 6.2 billion views ...

. Musically, "Don't Break My Heart" is an uptempo

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

recording. The track represented in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2003 The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the 48th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Riga, Latvia, following the country's victory at the with the song " I Wanna" by Marie N. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) a ...

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

, Latvia after winning the pre-selection show ''

Selecția Națională Romania has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 22 times since its debut in , and has placed in the top ten six times. Its best results were achieved by Luminița Anghel and Sistem in , and by Paula Seling and Ovi in , who both finished ...

''. In Riga, Nicola was automatically qualified to the Grand Final, where she finished in tenth place with 73 points. During her show, the singer performed in front of background dancers who were rotating overdimensional discs in the colors of the

Romanian flag The national flag of Romania ( ro, drapelul României) is a tricolour. The Constitution of Romania states that "The flag of Romania is tricolour; the colours are arranged vertically in the following order from the flagpole: blue, yellow, red". T ...

. Although a remix of the song received airplay on multiple radio stations in the United States, it failed to impact any national chart.

Background and release

In 1986, Nicola found the group Adaggio with Romanian singer Christina Fronea, giving over 200 concerts. She started her solo career in 1988 under the name Nicoleta Nicola, joining the Romanian project Riff. Prior to representing her country at Eurovision, Nicola had taken part in the national selection five times with her first appearance coming in 1992. Written by the singer and produced by her then-husband Mihai Alexandru, "Don't Break My Heart" is an uptempo and modern

song. Marc Gehring from German website Prinz.de thought that the song was "cool" and labelled it as the first one of its kind to represent Romania at the contest. The single was released as a CD in 2003 by

, and was later included on Nicola's greatest hits album ''Best of Nicola'' (2003) and her fourth studio album ''De mă vei chema'' (2004).

At Eurovision

On 1 March 2003, the ''Selecția Națională'' was held in order to select the Romanian entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2003. For the first time, the show was conducted in several televoting rounds to reach a wider and younger audience. Nicola, one of the favorites to win the national selection, was selected as the country's representative after the votes of a professional jury panel (79 points) and the televoting were added together, resulting in 24 points. The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 took place at the

Skonto Hall Skonto Hall (also known as Skonto Arena) is an arena in Riga, Latvia. In the lobby of Skonto there are conference halls, a gym, and an arena with an artificial football field, which also hosts numerous exhibitions and concerts. The multi-purpose h ...

in Riga, Latvia and consisted of the final, held on 24 May. According to the then-Eurovision rules, selected countries were picked to participate in the final, including the host country and the " Big Four" (, , and the ). Nicola performed in 24th place in the final — where Romania was automatically qualified due to the top 19 result the previous year — preceded by and followed by . During her show, the singer wore a red jacket along with red trousers, and performed in front of four background dancers who rotated overdimensional discs in the colors of the Romanian flag. Gehring from Prinz.de criticised both the outfits and the choreography of the show. The country finished in tenth place with a total of 73 points, including 12 awarded by , ten by Spain and eight by . The Romanian televote awarded its 12 points to .

Results

Track listing

*Romanian CD single #"Don't Break My Heart" – 2:59

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Don't Break My Heart (Nicola Song) Eurovision songs of Romania Eurovision songs of 2003 English-language Romanian songs 2003 songs Electronic dance music songs 2003 singles