Romania: Alexandra Căpitănescu wins Selecția Națională 2026 – to Eurovision with "Choke Me"
Romania held the final of Selecția Națională 2026 tonight with 12 acts taking part. After all the acts performed and the votes were counted, it was official: Alexandra Căpitănescu wins with "Choke Me" and will represent Romania at Eurovision 2026
Tonight Romania has joined the list of countries that officially have their Eurovision 2026 songs.
After choosing the national selection route, Romanian broadcaster TVR hosted Selecția Națională 2026 as their selection show to determine their Eurovision 2026 representative.
The 12 acts who made it to tonight's final performed their songs in hopes of obtaining the votes to secure the victory. Once the votes were released it was official: Alexandra Căpitănescu wins with "Choke Me".
"Choke Me" was written by Alexandra Căpitănescu, Călin-Alexandru Grăjdan, Elvis-Claudiu Silitră, and Ștefan Condrea.
Voting to determine the winner was decided 100% by a jury.
Alexandra Căpitănescu will take the stage for Romania during Semi-final 2 on 14 May with hopes of returning to the Grand Final.
Alexandra Căpitănescu
Just in her early 20's, Alexandra Căpitănescu has already started making a name for herself in the Romanian music scene. Most notably, she won Season 11 of Vocea României in 2023 at the age of 19. She was able to have all 4 chairs turned during her audition, and teamed up with coach Tudor Chirilă.
Her debut single 'Căpitanu' would become a hit on Youtube, receiving over 100k plays, with five other songs in her discography to do the same as well.
The song 'Choke Me' is used as a metaphor to showcase the feeling of being overwhelmed by strong emotions and self-expectations. 'Choke Me' demonstrates the aspect of a deeply personal struggle surrounded with the inner fears and pressure, and the sense of feeling like one is suffocating with doubt, self-criticism, and/or the desire for growth and transformation.
Selecția Națională 2026
Selecția Națională 2026 was Romania's national selection process to determine their Eurovision 2026 representative. After all the acts who auditioned made it through, we were left with 12 acts taking part in the Final which was held on Wednesday, 4 March.
The show took place at TVR Studio 3 in Bucharest and was hosted by 7 people spread throughout numerous parts of the show:
- Daniel Nuță
- Giulia Nahmany
- Alexandra Gavrilă (backstage)
- Iulian Selea (backstage)
- Răzvan Petre (backstage)
- Laura Fronoiu (public)
- Marius Popa (public)
Voting to determine the winner was decided by 100% jury vote. The winner will represent Romania at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna this May.
Romania in Eurovision
Romania had its debut in 1994, and has participated 23 times since. They have never won the contest, but came in 3rd in 2005 (Luminita Anghel & Sistem - "Let Me Try") and 2010 (Paula Seling & Ovi - "Playing With Fire").
Their worst result was in 2023 where they finished with zero points in their semi-final.
Since the introduction of the Semi-finals in 2004, Romania has qualified for the Grand Final 14 out of 18 times.
