Romania goes for Ester Peony with 'On a Sunday'

17 February 2019 at 22:09 CET

Ester Peony wins Romania's ‘Selecţia Naţională’ TVR

In an exciting final, Ester Peony turned out to be the winner of this year’s ‘Selecţia Naţională’. And with it she has also won Romania’s ticket to Tel Aviv.

Ester will perform On a Sunday in the first half of the second Semi-Final on the 16th of May.

About Ester Peony

Ester Alexandra Creţu, professionally known as Ester Peony, is a Romanian singer and songwriter. Her passion for music emerged during childhood when she lived with her family in Montréal, Canada.

In 2014, Ester gained online fame singing covers of famous songs, which led to her signing with a Romanian record label. A year later, Ester debuted on radio and TV with the song Sub aripa ta (feat. Vescan), which was playlisted for weeks on Romanian radio and music TV stations. At the same time, she embarked on both a solo tour and a tour with singers Puya, Vescan, Doddy and Anastasia.

In 2018, Ester released Dig It, her first EP and she co-wrote the tracks. She also worked on her Eurovision Song Contest entry On a Sunday, together with Alexandru Serbu and Ioana Victoria Badea. At the moment, Ester is working on her first album that is to be released later this year.

The show

The final of Selecţia Naţională took place at the Sala Polivalentă in Bucharest. The show was hosted by Alina Ionescu, Aurelian Temișan and Ilinca Avram.

During the voting, the audience was treated to special guest performances by 2013 Eurovision Song Contest winner Emmelie de Forest (Denmark) and 2018 Eurovision Song Contest winner Netta (Israel). Emmelie performed her single Sanctuary and her winning songs Teardrops, while Netta sang her new single Bassa Sababa.

Emmelie also featured as a guest judge in the international expert jury:

The running order of Selecţia Naţională:

Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest

Romania first entered the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 and have twice finished third. Paula Seling and Ovi scored 162 points in the Grand Final in 2010, matching Romania’s highest finish so far achieved by Luminita Anghel and Sistem’s Let Me Try in 2005, which beat this year’s hosts Israel into fourth place with superstar Shiri Maymon’s Hasheket Shenish'ar by four points.