After a break of nine years, the international Golden Stag Festival in Romania is back. This year’s edition will take place in Brasov from the 29th of August until the 2nd of September, and the line-up of participants includes lots of artists who took part in various national selections, as well as three Eurovision entrants!
Of over 100 submissions, a special jury has selected 18 artists to compete in this year’s festival. They are:
- Inis Neziri (Albania) – finished third in Festivali i Kenges last year with “Piedestal”
- Amaliya Margaryan (Armenia) – she was one of the backing vocalists of Artsvik in 2017, and finished third in Depi Evratesil with “Waiting For The Sun”
- Kaye Olivier Fabian C (Belgium)
- John Karayiannis (Cyprus) – as we all know, he represented Cyprus in Eurovision 2015 with “One Thing I Should Have Done”
- Kelly-Joyce Bale (France)
- Ryan O’Shaughnessy (Ireland) – brought Ireland back to the Final of Eurovision with “Together” and finished in 16th place
- Omer Netzer (Israel)
- Damiano Borgi (Italy)
- Tiziana Camelin (Italy) – took part in the Romanian Selectia Nationala this year and finished in 13th place
- Dinara Kairova (Kazakhstan)
- Antonia Gigovska (Macedonia)
- Karl William Lund (United Kingdom) – finalist of Eurovision You Decide in 2016 with “Miracle”
- Lidia Isac (Moldova) – represented Moldova in Eurovision 2016 with “Falling Stars”
- Dora Gaitanovici (Romania) – finalist of this year’s Selectia Nationala, finished in 6th place with “Fara tine”
- Ovidiu Anton (Romania) – won Selectia Nationala in 2016, and would have represented his country in Eurovision in Stockholm
- Raluca Blejusca (Romania)
- Sebastian Schmidt (San Marino) – a German singer who was one of the three artists who took part in San Marino’s national final with “Stay”, and finished in 9th place, and was then the backing vocalist for Jessika and Jenifer Brening in Lisbon
- Jorge Gonzalez (Spain) – finalist of the Spanish Eurovision selections in 2009 with “Si yo vengo a enamorarte” and 2014 with “Aunque se acabe el mundo”.
All artists, apart from singing their own songs will also have to perform a song in Romanian. A total of eight awards will be given out, whilst the winner of the festival will receive a 25.000 EUR prize.
The Golden Stag Festival is organized by the Romanian Television and will be broadcast live on TVR 1 and TVR Moldova. The festival will end with the show “Romania Centennary”, a show which will bring together Romanian folk traditional music blended with modern vibes of this musical genre.
