Romania had originally applied and selected an entry to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden, however, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) removed the Romanian national broadcaster Televiziunea Română (TVR) from all EBU member services, including the contest, following repeated non-payment of debts on 22 April 2016. With TVR's inability to broadcast the contest, the Romanian entry became ineligible to compete and was removed from the contest.
The Romanian entry for the 2016 contest would have been the song "Moment of Silence" written and performed by Ovidiu Anton. TVR organised the national final Selecția Națională 2016 in order to select the Romanian entry. The national final consisted of two shows: a semi-final and a final. Twelve entries were selected to compete in the semi-final on 4 March 2016 where a five-member jury panel selected four entries to advance to the final, while a public vote selected an additional two entries to enter the final. The six qualifiers competed in the final on 6 March 2016 where "Moment of Silence" performed by Ovidiu Anton was selected as the winner entirely by a public vote.
Background
Prior to the 2016 contest, Romania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 17 times since its first entry in 1994. To this point, its highest placing in the contest has been third place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 2005 with the song "Let Me Try" performed by Luminița Anghel and Sistem, and in 2010 with the song "Playing with Fire" performed by Paula Seling and Ovi. To this point, Romania has qualified to the final on every occasion since the introduction of semi-finals to the format of the contest in 2004. In 2015, "De la capăt" by band Voltaj placed 15th in the final.
The Romanian national broadcaster, Televiziunea Română (TVR), broadcasts the event within Romania and organizes the selection process for the nation's entry. TVR has consistently selected the Romanian Eurovision entry through national finals that feature a competition among several artists and songs. The broadcaster confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest on 7 September 2015. TVR had set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Romania, a procedure which the broadcaster opted for once again to select their 2016 entry.
Before Eurovision
Selecția Națională 2016
Selecția Națională 2016 was the national final organised by TVR in order to select Romania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. The competition consisted of two shows: a semi-final featuring twelve songs and a final featuring six songs to be held on 4 and 6 March 2016, respectively. Both shows took place at the Sala Sporturilor in Baia Mare and were hosted by Cornel Ilie and Ioana Voicu with Ioana Anuța–Jo hosting segments from the green room. The producer of the competition was Iuliana Marciuc, who was also appointed as the head of the Romanian delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest, while the director of the shows was Dan Manoliu. The two shows were televised on TVR1, TVR HD, TVRi as well as online via the broadcaster's streaming service TVR+ and YouTube. The two shows were also broadcast in Moldova via the channel TVR Moldova. The official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv provided an online stream for the final of the competition.
Competing entries
TVR opened a submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries between 18 January 2016 and 7 February 2016. An expert committee reviewed the received submissions between 8 and 10 February 2016. The broadcaster received 94 submissions after the submission deadline passed. Each juror on the committee rated each song between 1 (lowest) and 10 (highest) based on criteria such as the melodic harmony and structure of the song, the orchestral arrangement, originality and stylistic diversity of the composition and sound and voice quality. After the combination of the jury votes, the top twelve entries that scored the highest were selected for the national final. The competing entries were announced during a press conference on 11 February 2016 held in the Media Room at the National Theatre in Bucharest and hosted by Iuliana Marciuc with the mayor of Baia Mare, Cătălin Cherecheș, in attendance. The press conference was televised on TVR2. Among the competing artists was Mihai Trăistariu, who previously represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006. TVR hosted a presentation evening at the Berăria H venue in Bucharest on 19 February where the running order for the semi-final was determined and the competing artists performed their songs live for the public.