Romania’s national broadcaster TVR has been invited to a songwriting camp in the hopes it raises chances of a Eurovision return.
Invite sent to TVR – unknown if they will attend
With countries starting to prepare for next year’s Contest, several songwriting camps have been formed specifically to write for Eurovision. Songwriting camps have already taken place in Malta following their confirmation of participation at next year’s Contest.
Now, a new camp is set to take place, aiming to connect songwriters in both Romania and Norway. Titled “Normania”, the camp will take place in October – with the goal of writing songs that will end up in national selections. For this edition of the camp, organising team The Woods has placed special emphasis on Romania’s selection, Selecția Națională.
On their website, the organisers confirmed that TVR had been invited to attend the camp, which will take place in Romania itself. The Woods explained:
The Normania Eurovision Songwriting Camp brings together Romanian, Norwegian, and international composers, topliners, producers, lyricists, and artists for three intensive days of collaboration.
Participants will co-write and produce brand new pop songs aimed at national selections for Eurovision 2026, with a special focus on Romania. TVR is invited and might show up, but we will also write for other nations depending on the final artist casting.
The camp is being co-run by Ovi Jacobsen, who has represented Romania on two separate occasions together with Paula Seiling. He first represented Romania in 2010, scoring a third-place finish with “Playing with Fire”. Ovi would go on to take part in Eurovision in 2014, finishing in twelfth place.
TVR wants ‘reset’ with record labels
The move comes as TVR explained a return to Eurovision will remain unlikely until there is a reset of relations between the broadcaster and record labels. Speaking to journalists, TVR’s Director-General said a key factor in its withdrawal in 2024 was a severe dip in quality from songs entered by record companies.
As well as this, the Director-General added that record labels dropped out after moves were made to improve the fairness of the selection. Speaking on the country’s future at Eurovision, he said:
We cannot invent singers, we are not music composers either, so our power to influence the quality of the songs that enter the selection and implicitly the selection – so that we send artists to the Eurovision stage that we can be proud of and who are considered by many people as representatives of the Romanian music scene – has become very narrow.
We will return to Eurovision when we can truly bring to the Eurovision stage from Romania artists who are truly at the top of the music industry.
Romania’s Eurovision journey
Romania joined the Eurovision family in the Eastern wave of enlargement, making their debut in 1994. Their entry – Dan Bittman’s “Dincolo de nori” – finished in 21st place with a total of 14 points. At the introduction of semi-finals, Romania found their stride and were present in every Eurovision final until 2018. Romania’s best result is third place, scored twice in 2005 and 2010 respectively.
In 2023, Romania was represented by Theodor Andrei with his song – “D.G.T. (Off and On)”. Performing at the second semi-final in Liverpool, Romania failed to qualify for the final. At the close of voting in the semi-final, Romania finished joint last, scoring 0 points from the televote.
What do you think of the initiative to get TVR to return to Eurovision? Will Romania make a comeback soon? As always, please let us know what you think by getting involved in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Threads, tumblr, and Bluesky for more information about Eurovision 2026!
News Source: The Woods
Photo Credit: Sarah Louise Bennett / EBU
Euan T