Nicoleta Matei, also known as Nico and Vlad Miriță passed the finale of National Selection where the panel jury votes and the televoting was combined totaling a number of 271 points with the song called: ‘Pe-o Margine De Lume’ (English translation: “On an edge of the world”).

“Pe-o margine de lume” is an operatic ballad in Romanian and Italian language, the song was written by Andreea Andrei and Anton Șuteu, while production was handled by Andrei Tudor, the song was also suspected of plagiarising “La Magia del corazón” (2002) by David Bustamante.

(TVR) decided to set up a commission to analyze ‘Pe-o margine de lume’, after analyzing both songs, representatives of the Uniunea Compozitorilor și Muzicologilor din România (Union of Composers and Musicologists from Romania) concluded: “In spite of the resemblance of six musical notes from the beginning of the refrain of the two musical works, ‘Pe-o margine de lume‘ cannot be considered a plagiarism of ‘La Magia del corazón’, because in their entirety the two musical works are different.”

“Pe-o margine de lume” was performed 17th in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 which was held in Belgrade at the Štark Arena on the 20th of May 2008. Romania qualified with “Pe-o margine de lume” for the finale from 24th of May 2008. Romania reached the 20th place with 45 points, one of Romania’s lowest scores in the Eurovision Song Contest at this time.

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Romania in the contest’s first semi-final and Grand Final.

The Marcel Bezençon Awards awarded “Pe-o margine de lume” with the ‘Composer Award one of the four categories available.