Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020
Romania was set to be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with the song "Alcohol You", written by Ionuț Armaș, Viky Red, and Breyan Isaac, and performed by Roxen. The Romanian participating broadcaster, TVR, selected its entry through the national final Selecția Națională 2020, after having previously selected the performer internally. TVR announced Roxen on 11 February 2020, while the national selection competition took place on 1 March.
Prior to the scheduled Eurovision Song Contest 2020, "Alcohol You" was promoted by a lyric video, while Roxen appeared on several native talk shows and radio stations. Romania was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which would have taken place on 12 May 2020. However, the contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Background
Prior to the 2020 contest, TVR had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Romania 20 times since its first entry in. Its highest placing in the contest, to this point, had been third place, achieved on two occasions: in with the song "Let Me Try" performed by Luminița Anghel and Sistem, and in with the song "Playing with Fire" performed by Paula Seling and Ovi. In, Romania failed to qualify to the final, placing 13th in the second semi-final with "On a Sunday" by Ester Peony. This marked the second consecutive time that they failed to qualify to the final since the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, after.In September 2019, TVR confirmed its participation in the 2020 contest. As of December 2019, the broadcaster was discussing the method to select a representing entry, which evolved as the subject of online controversy since precise information surrounding its Eurovision participation had been given that time in preceding years. In addition, the mayors of Baia Mare and Buzău claimed the cities were potential hosts of a national final that was yet to be confirmed by TVR.
Before Eurovision
Artist selection
On 31 January 2020, TVR confirmed its collaboration with native label Global Records for the selection of a Eurovision entry, citing their recent relevancy and success within Romania's music industry as reasons for the decision. Furthermore, it was announced that Liana Stanciu would return as the country's head of delegation. While Global Records was not remunerated, the project had cost TVR a reported €69,000. A jury panel—consisting of Luminița Anghel, Liviu Elekes, Dan Manoliu, Crina Mardare, Bogdan Păun, Lucian Ștefan and Andrei Tudor—was hired to select Romania's representing artist out of the label's roster. Having brought together several composers such as David Ciente, a songwriting camp was organised in January 2020, with the five best-written songs being selected by music experts to proceed to Selecția Națională 2020. The segment Destinația Eurovision was aired by TVR, documenting the internal artist selection and songwriting camp.In an online interview two days after TVR's announcement, Global Records's manager Ștefan announced that a male and two female artists had been shortlisted to represent Romania at Eurovision; they were later reported to be Cezar Gună, Diana V and Roxen. The latter was revealed as Romania's representative on 11 February, and the competing songs were released on 21 February. Roxen had risen to prominence in the country upon being featured on producer Sickotoy's "You Don't Love Me" in 2019, which reached number three on the Airplay 100 chart and was playlisted in several other territories.
''Selecția Națională 2020''
Selecția Națională 2020 was the national final format organised by TVR in order to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The competition consisted of five songs—"Alcohol You", "Beautiful Disaster", "Cherry Red", "Colors" and "Storm"—out of which the winner was determined by a 50/50 combination of votes from a jury panel and a public televote. The jury—consisting of Luminița Anghel, Crina Mardare, Alin Oprea, Edward Sanda and Andrei Tudor—awarded a set of points from five to zero, which was based on each member's individual set of votes from five to zero. The televoting was rendered down using the same scores.With an audience of around 200,000 viewers, Selecția Națională was broadcast at 21:00 and hosted by Elena Gheorghe and Connect-R at Sala Sporturilor "Romeo Iamandi" in Buzău. The hosts also served as interval acts alongside Loreen, Sandro Nicolas, Ulrikke Brandstorp, Dora Gaitanovici and Natalia Gordienco. Roxen's performances were directed by Bogdan Păun with the assistance of the director of photography Dan Manoliu, and made use of a circular stage and a LED screen sized around. CocoRico, Cotnari and Top Line were among the sponsors of the event, while Buzău itself contributed with €200,000 towards it. Writing for Eurovision.de, Irving Wolther lauded Selecția Națională, calling it "so opulent that one might think that a future winner is actually celebrating here". The full results of the national final were:
| Draw | Song | Songwriter | Jury | Televote | Total | Place |
| 1 | "Beautiful Disaster" | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | |
| 2 | "Cherry Red" | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | |
| 3 | "Colors" | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| 4 | "Alcohol You" | 5 | 5 | 10 | 1 | |
| 5 | "Storm" | 3 | 3 | 6 | 2 |