Less than an hour ago, the EBU has disqualified Romania from the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, due to the debt the Romanian broadcaster had, and they won’t be allowed to broadcast the Contest this year either. Now the news has also come to Ovidiu Anton, who won the Romanian national selection earlier this year, and was all set to perform his song “Moment of Silence” on the stage in Stockholm.

Ovidiu made a statement on his Facebook page:

Dear friends,
I received the official notification. I’m trying to smile and not to get carried away but… it’s unfair. I remain the same, honestly the same artist, and the same fighter who won by the decisions of the jury and the public… Even though, paradoxically, I must say I’ve been defeated… By whom? Why? Is this fair???

TVR owes the EBU a total of 16 million CHF, and the Romanian government was given a deadline until the 20th of April (later extended by a single day) to make satisfactory arrangements to repay the debt, but this didn’t happen.

Ovidiu Anton was promoting his song “Moment of Silence” in various Eurovision events around Europe in the past month. You can check out our chat with him in London last week:

Due to Romania’s disqualification, the Executive Supervisor of the Contest, Mr. Jon Ola Sand stated:

This is of course disappointing for the artist chosen to represent Romania, for our colleagues at TVR who have prepared their participation so well this year and, not least, for Romanian viewers and the many Eurovision fans in the country,