The Romanian participating broadcaster, Televiziunea Română (TVR), organised the national final Selecția Națională 2016 in order to select its entry for the contest.

The six qualifiers competed in the final on 6 March 2016 where "Moment of Silence" performed by Ovidiu Anton was selected as the winner entirely by a public vote.

[3] Selecția Națională 2016 was the national final organised by TVR in order to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.

[4][5] The producer of the competition was Iuliana Marciuc, who was also appointed as the head of the Romanian delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest, while the director of the shows was Dan Manoliu.

The competing entries were announced during a press conference on 11 February 2016 held in the Media Room at the National Theatre in Bucharest and hosted by Iuliana Marciuc with the mayor of Baia Mare, Cătălin Cherecheș, in attendance.

TVR hosted a presentation evening at the Berăria H venue in Bucharest on 19 February where the running order for the semi-final was determined and the competing artists performed their songs live for the public.

[13] The members of the jury panel that voted during the semi-final were: Alexandra Cepraga (music director), Horia Moculescu (composer, producer), Randi (singer, producer), Zoli Toth (musician, represented Romania in 2005 as part of Sistem) and Cezar Ouatu (countertenor, represented Romania in 2013).

Six songs competed and the winner, "Moment of Silence" performed by Ovidiu Anton, was selected exclusively by public televoting.

[7][15] Ovidiu Anton made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Moment of Silence" as the Romanian Eurovision entry.

On 9 April, Ovidiu Anton performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Hera Björk.

The withdrawal disqualified TVR from participating and broadcasting the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 and therefore made the selected Romanian entry ineligible to compete.

In recent weeks the EBU has taken note of the Ministry of Finance’s suggestion that TVR may be placed into insolvency proceedings which may in turn lead to a profound restructuring of the broadcaster.