Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003
| Eurovision Song Contest 2003 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |
 Romania | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | National Final | |||
| Selection date(s) |
Semi-finals 15 February 2003 22 February 2003 Final 1 March 2003 | |||
| Selected entrant | Nicoleta Alexandru | |||
| Selected song | "Don't Break My Heart" | |||
| Finals performance | ||||
| Final result | 10th, 73 points | |||
| Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
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In 2003 Romania was represented by Nicoleta Alexandru (Nicola).
National selection
Televiziunea Română (TVR) held a national final to select the its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. There were two semi-finals, one on 15 February and the second one on 22 February. The top 6 songs from each semi-final went forward to the final. The entries were selected by televoting (50%) and an expert jury (50%) which included Monica Anghel who represented Romania in ESC 2002.
| Draw | Artist | Song | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Krypton | "Lumea noastră" | 7 | 7 |
| 2 | Selena | "Anytime" | 1 | 12 |
| 3 | Valahia | "Friends are friends" | 16 | 3 |
| 4 | Desperado | "Fată de ţară" | 7 | 7 |
| 5 | Nicoleta Matei | "The only one" | 16 | 3 |
| 6 | Răzvan Crivaci & Liviu Sorescu | "Once upon a time" | 8 | 6 |
| 7 | Aurelian Temișan | "Let's have a holiday" | 19 | 1 |
| 8 | D’La Vegas | "Oxigen" | 11 | 5 |
| 9 | Supermarket | "Un om între oameni" | 4 | 10 |
| 10 | Paula Seling | "Let's go!" | 18 | 2 |
| 11 | Marius Dragomir | "Golden bird" | 3 | 11 |
| 12 | Sfinx Experience | "A fost o vreme când" | 6 | 9 |
| Draw | Artist | Song | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Centrul Civic | "Come with us" | 13 | 3 |
| 2 | Mălina Olinescu | "Tăcerea doare" | 9 | 7 |
| 3 | Latin Expres | "Mereu aproape" | 1 | 10 |
| 4 | Aurelian Temișan | "Goodbye, hello, goodbye" | 16 | 2 |
| 5 | Genius | "My life" | 11 | 6 |
| 6 | Costi Ioniţă | "Dominus" | 13 | 3 |
| 7 | Alexandra Ungureanu | "Make this love come true" | 12 | 5 |
| 8 | Bogdan Bradu | "Albastru aprins" | 7 | 9 |
| 9 | Nicola | "Don't break my heart" | 24 | 1 |
| 10 | Open | "Tell me" | 0 | 12 |
| 11 | Oana Sârbu | "Doar tu știi" | 1 | 10 |
| 12 | Hara | "Spune" | 9 | 7 |
National Final
The Romanian Final was held on March 1 at the TVR TV Studios in Bucharest, hosted by Kitty Cepraga & Leonard Miron. The winner was chosen by televoting (50%) and an expert jury (50%). Nicola was favourite with both the jury and televoters. Aurelian Temișan withdrew his song "Goodbye, hello, goodbye" as he didn't want to split his televotes between two songs. The song "Dominus" by Costi Ioniţă was disqualified due to similarities between it and the song "Ty prosti" by the Russian Group Hi-Fi.
| Draw | Artist | Song | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valahia | "Friends are friends" | 11 | 3 |
| 2 | D’La Vegas | "Oxigen" | 5 | 10 |
| 3 | Nicola | "Don't break my heart" | 24 | 1 |
| 4 | Genius | "My life" | 9 | 6 |
| 5 | Paula Seling | "Let's go!" | 11 | 3 |
| 6 | Răzvan Crivaci & Liviu Sorescu | "Once upon a time" | 9 | 6 |
| 7 | Alexandra Ungureanu | "Make this love come true" | 11 | 3 |
| 8 | Nicoleta Matei | "The only one" | 7 | 9 |
| 9 | Centrul Civic | "Come with us" | 9 | 6 |
| 10 | Aurelian Temișan | "Let's have a holiday" | 20 | 2 |
About Nicola
Nicoleta Alexandru (born 2 January 1968), whose stage name is Nicola, is a famous Romanian singer. She is a star in her native country.
Born in Bucharest, Nicola started her solo career in 1992 and has toured widely as well as making numerous television, radio and stage appearances. In 2003, she was awarded the Woman of the Year prize by Avantaje magazine, her song "Lângă Mine" was awarded "The Song of the Year" prize by Bucureşti and Radio Actualităţi stadions; she was awarded the Mamaia and Love Song Festival trophies for the same song.
On March 1, 2003, after a huge response to her song "Don't Break My Heart" Nicola won the Romanian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest at Riga. In the international final she came in 10th.
In 2003 she released her fourth LP, Best Of Nicola. Building on the recognition gained from the Eurovision Song Contest, the album sold more copies than expected for a Romanian artist and stayed in the Top 5 of the album charts for 6 months.
At Eurovision
On the night of the final Nicola performed 24th in the running order, following Estonia and preceding the Sweden. At the close of the voting "Don't Break My Heart" had received 73 points from 15 countries (the highest being 12 from Russia), placing Romania 10th of the 26 entries. The 12 points from the Romanian televote were awarded to Sweden.
Points Awarded by Romania
| 12 points |  Sweden |
| 10 points |  Turkey |
| 8 points | .svg.png){kind=small} Belgium |
| 7 points |  Russia |
| 6 points |  France |
| 5 points |  Spain |
| 4 points |  Poland |
| 3 points |  Norway |
| 2 points |  Greece |
| 1 point |  Germany |
| 12 points | 10 points | 8 points | 7 points | 6 points |
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| 5 points | 4 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point |
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Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 2003
| Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest | |||||||||||||||||
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(Note: Entries scored out are when Romania did not compete) | |||||||||||||||||