[citation needed] In 1996, she won the "Aurelian Andreescu" trophy under the guidance of Anda Popp, and made her first performance at the Golden Stag Festival,[9] also appearing in the show Viața de român ("Romanian life"),[10] as a backing vocalist.

[12][13] Seling first competed in the Selectia Nationala in 1998,[14][15] collaborating with band Talisman on the song "Te iubesc", which came 4th with 565 points, finishing 2nd in the jury vote and 6th in the televote.

[citation needed] In 1999 Seling released her first complete album, entitled De dragoste ("For Love"),[16][17] a collection of 10 songs composed by Nicu Alifantis.

The album included tracks such as "Almost Silence"/"Aproape liniște"; "The Shadow"/"Umbra"; and "How Good That You Exist"/"Ce bine că ești".

Seling competed in the Mamaia Festival 2001 with her performance of "Ploaie în luna lui marte" (Rain in the Moon of Mars), a cover of a song by Nicu Alifantis, which was named Hit of the Year.

[citation needed] In January 2001 Seling released the album Mă voi întoarce ("I will return"),[18] which included "Lângă mine" (Next to me), a duet with Cristi Enache of Direcția 5.

[19] Paula and Paul Seling worked on the album, Știi ce înseamnă (să fii fericit) ("You know what it means (to be happy)") until the autumn of 2001, collaborating with Cezar Stănciulescu and Cristi Ștefănescu of the band NSK.

[12] Also in 2001, Seling released the album Prima selecție ("First selection"),[12] a collection of live recordings, duets and re-recordings, and collaborated with Puya from La Familia.

That year, she also finished in 3rd place in the Selecția Națională Eurovision Final with the song "Seven Days", and performed a duet with "manele" singer Florin Salam at the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra.

[2] They re-recorded the original version of the song "Playing With Fire",[2] and were selected as a finalist for the show on 27 January 2010,[23] and won the competition on 6 March 2010.

[2] Seling was the co-host of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 Romanian national final, held on New Year's Eve night on TVR 1, along with Cernăuţeanu and Marina Almasan-Socaciu.

[2][26] In late 2011, Seling recorded duets with Alexander Ryback, Ovi Cernăuţeanu and Al Bano,[2] for inclusion alongside "I Feel Free" and another at least eight songs on a new album due in 2012.

[30] In 2012, Selling was chosen by Disney to record the song "My Spirit Flies" ("Chiar pot zbura"), for the Pixar animation Brave.