Romania participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 in Kyiv, Ukraine. They selected their entry, "Let Me Try" by Romanian singer Luminița Anghel and group Sistem, through the national selection Selecția Națională 2005 in March 2005. Controversy surrounded the event, as second-placed singer Loredana accused the organising broadcaster, Romanian Television (TVR), of vote rigging. Prior to the 2005 contest, Romania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest seven times since its first entry in 1994. Its highest placing in the contest, to this point, had been ninth place, which the nation achieved in 2002. In 2004, they placed 18th in the final. Prior to Eurovision, "Let Me Try" was promoted by a music video and coverage in press, among other endeavours by TVR. Romania reached first place in the contest's semi-final with 235 points. This resulted in its qualification for the Grand Final, where it achieved third place with 158 points. This remains the country's best result in the contest, alongside 2010's entry. During Romania's show, Anghel performed to the song in front of Sistem, who contributed to the track's instrumentation by drumming on oil barrels and using side cutters and a grinding wheel. Following Eurovision, "Let Me Try" achieved commercial success in Romania, peaking at number nine on the Romanian Top 100. In addition, Anghel's participation in the contest led to record deal proposals from various countries including the Netherlands, Hungary, Germany and England. Before Eurovision Selecția Națională 2005 The Romanian Television (TVR) organized the Selecția Națională 2005 on 5 March 2005, a national final to select Romania's entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. Competing entries Out of all submitted songs, a jury panel decided on 12 finalists; the music videos to their entries were broadcast on 4 March during TVR's Stele de... Eurovision programme hosted by Mihăluș and Mugurel Vrabete. Final The final was held on 5 March 2005 at the TVR Studioul 1 from 20:00 to 23:00 EET, it was hosted by Laura Mihăluș and Dan Bittman. In the final, the televoting and jury scores were combined, with the televoting having a 25% weighting of the overall result. The 12-member panel was made up of Horia Moculescu, Titus Munteanu, Daniel Alexandrescu, Crina Mărdare, Oltea Șerban Pârău, Berti Barbera, Vlad Crețu, Adi Despot, Eugen Mihăescu, Dan Manoliu, Andrei Kerestely and Cătalin Tuță Popescu. The three songs attracting the most televotes were "Let Me Try" by Luminița Anghel