Selecția Națională, the national final Romania has been using to choose their representative for the Eurovision Song Contest every year since their debut, will be back in 2018 as well… but with an expansion!

Romanian broadcaster TVR have announced that the national selection in 2018 will consist of 5 semi-finals and a grand final, each show to be held in a different city in Romania.

Selecția Națională 2018 has been given the slogan ”Eurovision unites Romania” and Doina Gradea, Interim General Manager of TVR, explains why their national final has been scaled up like this, with even the plan of holding each show in a different city:

We want to bring Eurovision shows closer to viewers from all corners of the country, in a special year for Romanians everywhere – the Centenary of the Great Union

Also called Unification Day, the Great Union Day marks the day on which delegates of ethnic Romanians came together in Alba Iulia and the Romanian Kingdom was united with Bukovina, Bessarabia and Transylvania. This national assembly was held on the 1st of December 1918, making 2018 the centenary year, which is why TVR decided to go big!

An online pre-selection is set to start mid-November 2017 and in December a jury will decide which songs will make it to the semi-final stage. These semi-finals will take place in January and February next year. Which cities will have the honour of hosting a Selecția Națională show is not known yet.