Antecedent...

[Serban Nichifor]

http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/7556

 

The storm over the three Romanian disqualifications has not passed. There is now a stand-off between TVR and Marius Moga, composer of Dracula my love who is threatening to withdraw Morandi & Wassabi's entry if the song is not allowed to participate. In addition, Desperado and Tony Poptămaş may withdraw one of their entries in order to prevent a split in their vote that may cost them victory.

Dracula, My Love by Simplu & Andra, Sinada by New Effect feat. Moni-K and Well-o-wee by Rednex ft. Ro-Mania were all disqualified on Friday evening due to parts of the songs being broadcast prior to the October 1st 2006 cut-off point set down by the EBU. The TVR committee responsible for the competition includes composers Dan Dediu, Andrei Kerestely and Virgil Popescu, Zoli Toth, the 2005 representative (part of Sistem) and radio producer, Titus Andrei. They ruled that all three songs would have to be disqualified, or would face disqualification from the Eurovision Song Contest by the EBU if they won the national selection.

The decision has caused outrage from some participants. Rednex member Annika Ljungberg spoke to news agency TT-Spektra saying that it was strange that the Romanian TV company had approved the song at an early stage, only to reverse the decision now. "There are many question marks surrounding Romanian TV," she said.

Marius Moga, the composer of two songs that qualified from the semi fimals Dracula, My love and Crazy by Morandi & Wassabi has threatened to withdraw Crazy if Dracula, My love (one of the hot favourites) is not reinstated. The international relations and communications department at TVR told esctoday.com that "We have had no communication from Moga that the song has been withdrawn, therefore we expect Crazy to compete in the final on Saturday".

It remains to be seen if Morandi & Wassabi will participate or whether they will boycott the final on Saturday. There is also a question over the double participation of Desperado and Tony Poptămaş, who have two songs in the final: Where were you? and European - a beautiful sin. They are deciding whether to withdraw one entry in order to avoid a division of their fans vote between the two entries. If these two songs also withdraw, only 7 of the 12 qualifiers will participate in the Romanian final on Saturday.