The Mandinga band will represent Romania at Eurovision 2012, with the song ‘Zaleilah,’ a song composed by Costi Ionita. The song won the national selection contest that took place on Saturday evening on TVR. The selection was made on the basis of the grades given by the jury (50 per cent) and of televoting (50 per cent). Mandinga will take part in the first Eurovision semifinal on May 22 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Eurovision final will take place on May 26. Here are the bands and singers that topped the rankings after televoting: Mandinga (12 points), Catalin Josan (10 pts) and Ioana Anuta (8 pts). The jury’s points were won by Electric Fence (12 pts), Mandinga (10 pts) and Catalin Josan (8 pts). Mandinga thus won the national selection with a total of 22 points.The selection contest was nevertheless marred by controversies too, after singer Lucian Viziru filed a complaint at the National Anti-corruption Office (DNA) against the manner in which the public television organized the selection contest in which he took part. Lucian Viziru’s song was not selected among the 15 songs that entered the national selection contest. The former singer of the Gaz pe Foc band allegedly asked for Romania to be disqualified from Eurovision this year because the selection contest favored certain artists by including in the jury representatives of record companies with which certain competitors had contracts. Thus, Universal Music, the record company with which singer Catalin Josan has a contract, as well as Roton, the record company with which Keo, one of the composers of the song that Josan sang, has a contract, were represented in the jury. In Viziru’s opinion, Mandinga’s song should not even have made it through auditions. “Catalin Josan and Mandinga had connections in the jury, that’s why they went through,” Viziru stated for apropo.tv. In reply, Eurovision project manager Dan Manoliu stated for Mediafax that the singer’s initiative “has turned into a soap opera,” and that what Viziru is doing is “gradually turning into calumny.” “If DNA decides that we’ve done something illegal I presume it will subpoena us,” Manoliu stated.
