The Euro Trip Opinions: Elliot looks at Romania's exclusion

On April 22nd 2016, the world of Eurovision was dealt a blow they had never experienced before and one I never, ever saw coming. For the first time in the history of the organisation, the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) had forcibly removed a broadcaster, from the EBU and in turn Eurovision, the country I am referring to is of course Romania, just three weeks before the contest.

News of worries that Romania would be removed from Eurovision surfaced when it was reported that Televiziunea Romania (TVR) the national broadcaster Romania had accumulated debt and therefore owed the EBU in the region of 14.5 million Euros on the 19th April, saying that had set a deadline for the debt to be cleared by the following day or face exclusion from the contest.

Ovidiu Anton had already been selected at Romania's entry

There had been no news of when this had been agreed prior but that the money owed stretched back as far as 2007. Now on the first reading of this, although I knew there’s no way they can clear this debt magically a day after it has become blatant public knowledge, but I never thought the EBU would carry through this punishment – at least for this year. But alas they have and the record equalling year of 43 participating countries are no more, and this will be the first time since their debut back in 1993 that Romania will not be participating and the first time since 2002 they will not feature in the Grand Final.

Since their exclusion there has been a lot of finger pointing and playing the blame game and opinions expressed over the decision from many, from the respective Moldovan and Russian participants Lidia Isac and Sergey Lazarev. As well as on social media, to the Eurovision community on social media, mostly through Facebook and Twitter, some blame the EBU for this, some TVR and some splitting the blame. However, Eurovision stars and fans all agreed  on a unified statement amongst everyone is there is one innocent bystander caught in the crossfire – Ovidiu Antion.

Ovidiu was due to compete for Romania, after winning the national selection in March with rock style dramatic track “Moment Of Silence” he was due to perform 12th in the second semi final. He had also appeared at several pre party events including London, where I attended myself and I have to admit, I was a big fan of the stage show esque drama of the song and live, he delivered the same power and emotion from the studio version, he was understandably upset by the decision and is now expressed and believed to be taking legal action against the decision, whether he sought legal action against TVR or EBU or both organisations are still not 100% clear.

The TVR Broadcast Centre in Bucharest, Romania

In the days that followed and when all the dust and initial shock had settled, Ovidiu was thrown a lifeline – albeit a bizarre one, from his country's neighbours Moldova. Moldova (who have awarded Romania 12 points in the final every year they have competed) had their broadcaster TVM (Tele-Radio Moldova) offer Ovidiu to opportunity to perform with Lidia Isac in her Eurovision entry “Falling Stars” turning it into a duet. Although I was unsure if this was even allowed at this stage, Ovidiu replied shortly after declining the invitation saying he also wanted to sing Moment Of Silence and he did not want to impact his hurt onto Lidia’s performance – I was all for a duet, so hopefully they might release one after the contest?

Earlier in the week also it came out that private Romanian channel Pro TV had requested the rights to broadcast Eurovision to the EBU, although this initial request was rejected.

Also as one final point the EBU is not just for Eurovision, they control all broadcasting of all events, so the Olympics in Rio De Janiero in a few months time, rhe European Championship in France just beforehand- Romania have no right to broadcast ANY of these events and as of when they can return to EBU status and Eurovision as a whole is a mystery, hopefully 2017 but I’m not putting my money on anything just yet.

Elliot. x

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