Eurovision: How Were Romania’s Votes Stolen?

Romania’s votes were stolen at Eurovision. The reason? Politics seems the apparent cause. Would Ukrainians win Eurovision regardless of performance? Here are the confessions made by Eda Marcus, who had to present live at Eurovision the scores offered by Romania to the participating countries.

Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest, but the grand finale couldn’t end without a scandal. Because the invasion of Ukraine and the entire military escalation in the region attracted the whole planet’s attention and generated millions of political or philanthropic reactions, Ukraine was expected to be favoured.

It is not a surprise that Eurovision is more about politics than music. Everybody knows it, but no one is saying anything about the irregularities of Eurovision.

On the evening when Romania was going to broadcast the score, a few minutes before the live broadcast of the presenter of the Romanian station that broadcast Eurovision, Eda Marcus, it was reported that Romania had technical problems.

Here’s what happens when Mika announced that Romania has ”technical difficulties”:

The video above is a recording of Eda Marcus, the presenter who had to broadcast Romania’s points live. Her reaction says it all. She couldn’t believe what was happening and that with a couple of moments before the broadcast.

The Romanian presenter also explained what happened behind the scenes

TVR (Romanian television) points out that the presenter Eda Marcus was not allowed to communicate live the results of the Romanian judging by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The EBU annulled the vote of the Romanian jury.

It should be noted that the Eurovision show is recorded one night before the broadcast to avoid unforeseen situations that could jeopardise the broadcast. However, the judging is broadcast live. The jury, which was appointed by Romanian television to judge the artistic moments, met on Friday evening and voted. The procedure is standard. The score is uploaded to a platform before the organizers have the score. In Romania’s situation, the jury offered Moldova maximum points meaning that the 12 points were allocated to Moldova, not to Ukraine, as later announced by European Broadcasting Union.

The scores are uploaded to an online platform, they are processed on the evening of the show and a few minutes before I go live, the EBU practically takes out of that platform where these notes were introduced by my colleagues, a sheet that I have to show in the presence of a notary. This sheet is printed and brought to me in 5 minutes. (…) Imagine the shock of my colleague, Diana Damian, who took care of this procedure when she handed me with that sheet, knowing what was the ranking she had given the night before when she looked at the sheet and saw 12 points for Ukraine.

Eda Marcu, presenter on Romanian television

EBU has been notified in advance of this mistake. According to the Romanian television presenter, EBU communicated something evasive.

We were told to do as written, that they are EBU and that they will clarify the situation. That’s how I ended up with the 12-point sheet for Ukraine and couldn’t broadcast live anymore.

Eda Marcu, presenter on Romanian television

What were the real scores offered by Romania at EUROVISION

The total scores offered by Romania were the following: Moldova – 12 points, Grece – 10 points, Poland – 8 points, Netherlands – 7 points, Azerbaijan – 6 points, Australia – 5 points, Italy – 4 points, Spain – 3 points, Finland – 2 points, Lithuania – 1 point.

Even though it was reported that Romania had technical problems, after the end of the contest, it was announced that the jury from Romania and other countries was disqualified. According to EBU, the juries of six nations participating in the second EUROVISION 2022 semi-final have been disqualified due to irregularities. Instead, a replacement aggregate result was introduced for each country concerned, both for the second semi-final and for the grand final (calculated based on the results of other countries with a similar voting history). The six disqualified national juries were Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino.

Now, some believe that this whole issue with Ukraine has grown and that it has gone too far. Others say that if the Eurovision game was already set to be won by the Ukrainians, why did they hide it. One thing is clear. Eurovision has always been a political game, with a lot of money and interest in the middle behind a curtain of empathy, reminiscent of this year. In order not to be the victim of such a game, Romania should permanently withdraw from this competition, and many other countries should do the same.

Photo Source: Eurovision World