Romania had originally applied and selected an entry to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in , Sweden, however, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) withdrew the Romanian national broadcaster Televiziunea Română (TVR) from all EBU member services, including the contest, following repeated non-payment of debts on 22 April 2016. With TVR's inability to broadcast the contest, the Romanian entry became ineligible to compete and was removed from the contest.

The Romanian entry for the 2016 contest would have been the song "Moment of Silence" written and performed by Ovidiu Anton. TVR organised the national final Selecția Națională 2016 in order to select the Romanian entry. The national final consisted of two shows: a semi-final and a final. Twelve entries were selected to compete in the semi-final on 4 March 2016 where a five-member jury panel selected four entries to advance to the final, while a public vote selected an additional two entries to enter the final. 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.

Prior to the 2016 Contest, Romania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 17 times since its first entry in 1994. To this point, its highest placing in the contest has been third place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 2005 with the song "Let Me Try" performed by Luminița Anghel and Sistem, and in 2010 with the song "Playing with Fire" performed by Paula Seling and Ovi. To this point, Romania has qualified to the final on every occasion since the introduction of semi-finals to the format of the contest in 2004. In 2015, "De la capăt" by band Voltaj placed 15th in the final.

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