X Factor is a Romanian television music competition that aims to find a new music talent to become a star. The third season began airing on 23 September 2013 on Antena 1. The winner will receive a prize of â¬120,000 (decreased from â¬200,000 last season).
This season has the slogan "MuzicÃÂ ÃÂi suflet" ("Music and soul").
The hosts are the same as in the first and second season: RÃÂzvan Simion and Dani OÃÂil, who are also known for hosting a well-known morning show on Antena 1. Dan Bittman, Delia Matache and Cheloo have returned as judges for the third season.
The registration started for the third season in June 2013. Antena 1 made changes on the list for the audition cities: Craiova was dropped, Arad and Bucharest were added.
On December 22, 2013, the season was won by Florin Ristei, mentored by Matache. Alex MaÃÂaev, mentored also by Matache finished in second place.
Audition process was based on the British and American version. First up were "The Producer's Audition", where the producers chose singers to proceed to the second phase which was "The Audition before the Judging panel". The first auditions took place at Craiova, on 2 June. They then took place in Arad, on June 5 in Cluj Napoca on June 8, 2013, on June 11 in IaÃÂi, on June 14 in ConstanÃÂa and concluded on June 17, 2013 in Bucharest.
In a change to the usual format, the judges were allocated their categories before bootcamp. Cheloo will mentor the Groups, Matache took the Over 20s and Bittman had the Under 20s. The group Bruiaj (Eliza Bunu and Rareà  Raicu) was formed in bootcamp. After the bootcamp period, there were 32 acts left.
The 32 acts who reached the Judges' Houses:
The judges' home visit was the last stage of the selection process. The episode were aired on 17 November 2013. Each judge took the remaining members of their category to an overseas location, and had guests to assist them in their decisions. Cheloo was assisted by Mihaela RÃÂdulescu, Delia was advised by Mihai Bendeac and Bittman was by Simona Gherghe. In this stage Bella from November was eliminated by her mentor and the group November remained with only two members.
The seventeen eliminated acts were:
The 15 finalists were confirmed as follows:
Key:
The live shows underwent a change in this season. In the first three live shows, each category will have its own final showdown, the result of which is decided solely by its mentor. The outcome of the fourth show will only rely on the public vote and will have two eliminations (one of which will happen halfway through of the show, when the voting will have been frozen). Thus, the final will have four contestants (not three as in previous seasons). Two of the finalists will be eliminated halfway through the final show, when the voting will have been frozen. The winner is still determined by the public vote.
One of the contestants, Paolo LaganÃÂ (an Italian living in Romania at the time of the contest), made known his homosexuality on his entrance forms, which eventually drew ire and epithets from judge Cheloo. The offending remarks were edited from the broadcast, but may have affected the outcome of the contest in which LaganÃÂ was eliminated early. The event drew outcries from the Italian LGBT community, with calls for action from the Italian Ministry of the Exterior.
After the show, LaganÃÂ left Romania and moved to Berlin.