Paula Seling and Ovi, the couple who “played with fire” on the Eurovision stage in Oslo (2010) accepted the organizers’ invitation to be part of the national selection for Eurovision 2013, as hosts of the two semifinals and of the final show. They will play the role of two members of the famous Swedish band ABBA. The band will be completed by Andreea Bănică, a very popular Romanian singer, and Marius Rizea, a talented actor and comedian.
The three TV shows will take place on February 23rd – 24th, and March 9th. They will all be broadcast live on the main channel of TVR (national Romanian Television), as well as on TVR International – for the viewers abroad, and online, on http://www.tvrplus.ro, http://www.tvr.ro/eurovision. The national final show will also be broadcast on http://www.eurovision.tv.
For the national selection, 148 songs were submitted not only by Romanian composers, but also by foreigners from Great Britain, Turkey, Israel, Sweden or France, who applied by themselves or featuring Romanian composers or singers.
The preselection phase has already begun: the songs are being performed live by the artists, in front of the jury, in five different cities in Romania, at TVR territorial offices (in Iaşi, Cluj, Timişoara, Craiova and Bucharest), until the 14th of February.