"Tell Me Why" is a song recorded by Romanian singers

Monica Anghel Monica Anghel (; born 1 June 1971 in Bucharest, Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania) is a Romanians, Romanian singer and television personality. In 1996, she took part in the international preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest. The Roman ...

and

Marcel Pavel Marcel Pavel (; born 4 December 1959 in Galați County) is a folk music singer in Romania. His singing talents brought him to the top of the Romanian charts more than once. In 2002, Marcel was elected as ''The best male voice''. His first hit was ...

. It was recorded at the Midi Sound Studio in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, and was released as a CD single in 2002 by Transglobal EMI. A

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

, "Tell Me Why" was written by Mirela Fugaru and produced by Ionel Tudor, containing a saxophone, guitar and keyboards in its instrumentation. The track represented in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2002 The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was the 47th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tallinn, Estonia, following the country's victory at the with the song Everybody (Tanel Padar and Dave Benton song), "Everybody" by Tanel Pada ...

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

, Estonia after winning the pre-selection show ''

Selecția Națională Romania has been represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 23 times since its debut in , and has placed in the top ten six times. Its best results were achieved with "Let Me Try" by Luminița Anghel and Sistem in , and "Playing with Fire (Paul ...

''. In Tallinn, the artists finished in ninth place with 71 points. This remained Romania's best result until and qualified the country for the contest's next edition.

Background and release

, "Tell Me Why" was written by Mirela Fugar and produced by Ionel Tudor. It was recorded and mixed at the Midi Sound Studio in Bucharest, Romania by Andrei Kerestely. The song featured several instruments in its composition, including guitar played by Cezar Zavate, saxophone by Alexandru Simu and keyboards by Andrei Tudor. A CD of "Tell Me Why" was released in 2002 by Transglobal EMI, with its cover designed and photographed by PromArt, Mihai Stanescu and Liviu Marchidan.

At Eurovision

On 3 March 2002, the ''Selecția Națională'' was held in order to select the Romanian entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2002. Subsequently, "Tell Me Why" was chosen to represent Romania in the contest after the votes of a professional jury panel and public televoting were combined, resulting in 19 points. Sietse Bakker from EscToday praised the artists as having the best voices in the show. In a 2010 interview with ''

Adevărul (; meaning "The Truth", formerly spelled ''Adevĕrul'') is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in Iași, in 1871, and reestablished in 1888, in Bucharest, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Kingd ...

'', Anghel said: "It was both my idea and Marcel Pavel's to record a song together for Eurovision and it seemed an extraordinary idea because the Romanian audience loves us. ..Basically, we have won he national selectionthanks to the audience. They expressed their wish that we should participate." Both Pavel and Anghel took part in the national selection in previous years. Selected as the Romanian entrant for Eurovision in 1996 with her song "Rugă pentru pacea lumii", the latter failed to qualify for the Grand Final that year. The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 took place at the

Saku Suurhall Unibet Arena (named Saku Suurhall until 31 December 2022) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the Haabersti (subdistrict), Haabersti subdistrict of the Estonian capital, Tallinn. Opened in November 2001, it is the largest multi-purpose hall in th ...

in Tallinn, Estonia and consisted of the final on 25 May 2002. According to the Eurovision rules at the time, selected countries were picked to participate in the final, including the host country and the " Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom). In 2002, Romania automatically qualified to the final due to their

relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

in the previous year. Thus, Anghel and Pavel performed in 21st place, preceded by and followed by . During their show, the artists sang "Tell Me Why" in front of a

turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone for millennia due to its hue. The robi ...

background, with Anghel wearing a black dress and Pavel sporting a suit. Romania came in ninth place with 71 points, including 12 awarded by and , and eight by , and . The Romanian jury awarded its 12 points to Macedonia. Due to the top 10 result, the country was qualified in the 2003 contest. It remained Romania's best placement until 2005.

Results

Track listing

*Romanian CD single #"Tell Me Why" (Full Vocal Mix) – 2:46 #"Tell Me Why" (Instrumental) – 2:46

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of the CD single.

Management

*Published by Transglobal EMI *Recorded and mixed at Midi Sound Studio (

, Romania)

Personnel

*Monica Anghel –

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

*Marcel Pavel – lead vocals *Mirela Fugaru –

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

*Andrei Kerestely – mixing *Alexandru Simu – saxophone *Andrei Tudor – keyboards *Ionel Tudor – producer *Cezar Zavate – guitar

Release history

External links

''Selecția Națională 2002'' results

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2002 Eurovision songs of Romania Eurovision songs of 2002 English-language Romanian songs 2002 songs 2002 singles 2000s ballads