Romania was represented at the
qualifying round
Qualification may refer to:
Processes
* Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress
* Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...
for the
Eurovision Song Contest 1993
The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was the 38th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 15 May 1993 at the Green Glens Arena in Millstreet, Ireland. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (RTÉ), and pr ...
with the song "", written and performed by
Dida Drăgan. The Romanian participating broadcaster, (TVR), selected its entry through the national final on 16 January 1993. The entry, which would have been the first-ever entry from Romania in the
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...
, failed to make it through the pre-selection round ranking last. Predominantly negative reactions from Romanian media followed as a result of Drăgan's poor performance.
Before Eurovision
(TVR) organized the on 16 January 1993, a national final to select its entry for the
Eurovision Song Contest 1993
The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was the 38th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 15 May 1993 at the Green Glens Arena in Millstreet, Ireland. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (RTÉ), and pr ...
. A winner out of the 11 competing entries —"" by
Dida Drăgan— was announced by (IRSOP), who added up the votes of 1100 households in Romania. Although the rest of the result was not publicly revealed, local media speculated that Laurenţiu Cazan and
Laura Stoica reached second and third place respectively. The competing entries were:
At
In the early 1990s, the number of broadcasters eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest increased significantly with the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the subsequent admission into the
European Broadcasting Union
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...
(EBU) of the broadcasters of the countries that emerged from the breakup. The merger of the EBU with its Eastern European counterpart, the
International Radio and Television Organisation
The International Radio and Television Organisation (official name in French: Organisation Internationale de Radiodiffusion et de Télévision or OIRT (before 1960 International Broadcasting Organization (IBO), official name in French: ''Organ ...
(OIRT), further expanded the number of broadcasters by including those from countries of the former Eastern Bloc. The broadcasters from seven of those new countries confirmed their intentions to debut at the 1993 contest. With this large influx of participants, the EBU was forced to create a new measure to counter overcrowding in the contest. The EBU decided to hold a one-off qualification round to select the entries from three of those seven new countries, which would join the entries from the 22 countries already competing in the Eurovision Song Contest.
The (Qualification for Millstreet) contest was held in
Ljubljana
{{Infobox settlement
, name = Ljubljana
, official_name =
, settlement_type = Capital city
, image_skyline = {{multiple image
, border = infobox
, perrow = 1/2/2/1
, total_widt ...
, Slovenia, on 3 April at the television studios of Slovene broadcaster (RTVSLO). Romania was the fifth country to perform, following and preceding . The Romanian entry came in last place and failed to qualify, receiving 38 points.
12 points were awarded by , six by and five by , , Hungary, and Slovenia.
The Eurovision site does not count the year in Romania's list of appearances.
Voting
Reactions and reception
Drăgan's poor result attracted overwhelming criticism from the Romanian media. An editor of accused IRSOP of
conspiracy
A conspiracy, also known as a plot, ploy, or scheme, is a secret plan or agreement between people (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder, treason, or corruption, especially with a political motivat ...
and arranged voting, seeing Laurențiu Cazan as the real winner of . They also stated that TVR failed to inform the Romanian public about Eurovision, resulting in the
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
-inspired "" being sent to the
pop
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Pop music, a musical genre
Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop! (British group), a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Album ...
-centered Eurovision Song Contest. also noted the rock nature of Drăgan's performance, attributing it to her outfit, vocal delivery and movements. saw the event as the "artistic suicide of Dida Drăgan", and criticized her vocals. Contrary to the negative reviews of 1993, an editor of EuroVisionary, looking retrospectively at Drăgan's performance, stated: "Undoubtedly, the most passionate and dramatic performance of the evening. Dida moved her hands as if life depended on them, and her voice was giving life to the lyrics". However, they slightly criticized her show as being over-the-top.
References
{{Eurovision Song Contest 1993
1993
The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as:
* International Year for the World's Indigenous People
The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...
Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993
Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster submits an origina ...