Bulgaria: Dara will sing Bangaranga at Eurovision 2026

Photo Credit: BNT

After a long month of waiting, we finally know the song that Bulgarian singer Dara, selected late last month, will be taking to the Eurovision stage.

In the short-and-sweet final show of Natsionalna Selektsiya 2026, Dara performed three new songs: self-confidence ballad This Is Me, drum-and-bass heartbreak song Curse and dark-pop dance anthem Bangaranga.

We also saw a laundry list of guest performances, most notably Eva Marija, Luxembourg's entrant also going to Vienna with her song Mother Nature, as well as Sammarinese artist and Eurovision icon Senhit with her 2020 entry Freaky! and 2021 entry Adrenalina.

The songs were then voted on by a 10-member jury and online voting for viewers. Each juror awarded the songs 1-3 points, while the online voting was translated into 1, 2 and 3 points for each song.

In the end, it was Bangaranga that came out on top, with Curse coming in at 2nd and This Is Me rounding out the selection in 3rd.

And with that, we finally have all the parts of Bulgaria's Eurovision entry for 2026!

Bulgaria at Eurovision

Bulgaria debuted at the contest in 2005, with the song Lorraine by jazz band Kaff. The song placed 19th in the semi final and failed to qualify for the grand final.

Things were rocky for Bulgaria's entries throughout the late 2000's and early 2010's, but after a brief hiatus from the contest Bulgaria came back swinging: Poli Genova's If Love Was a Crime placed 4th in the grand final of 2016, and the following year Kristian Kostov took home the silver trophy with Beautiful Mess.

In 2022, Intelligent Music Project's Intention placed 16th in the first semi-final, which was sadly Bulgaria's first non-qualification in nine years. Since then the country has been taking another break from the contest, citing financial constraints.

As this year marks the 10-year anniversary of Poli Genova's 4th place finish for the country after qualification struggles, perhaps we will be seeing a similar comeback this year. We'll have to stay tuned to find out!

This year Bulgaria will perform at the first half of the second semi-final on 14 May, the same semi-final as Australia.

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