History of Bulgaria at Eurovision
Back in May, Eurovision fans were delighted to see a first time Eurovision winner, a win that came as quite the shock - or was it really a shock?
Today is Bulgaria's Independence Day, marking their separation from the Ottoman Empire in 1908. To celebrate, we will take a look at Bulgaria's history at Eurovision - definitely a country that has punched above their weight at the Contest.
Bulgaria were often labelled a powerhouse in the Eurovision Song Contest particularly in the mid-2010s, but one of their last results and then departure the following year meant the much-loved country was very much missed. But... what a result to return to the Contest and score a win! We are delighted to visit Burgas next year!
Before the beginning
Bulgaria's broadcaster, BNT became a full member of the EBU back in 1993, making the national eligible to participate. However, following the collapse of Yugoslavia and the dissolution of the Soviet bloc, the Eurovision Song Contest had multiple new countries wishing to join and spaces were limited.
The EBU held a qualification round "Kvalifikacija za Millstreet" (Qualification for Millstreet) in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Bulgaria did intend to participate in 1993 but, in the end, did not submit an entry, citing multiple reasons including resourcing issues.
In 1996, Bulgaria actually applied to the EBU to attend, but there were so many countries interested, the EBU held a pre-selection audio round, and sadly, Bulgaria did not survive this process.
In 2003, Bulgaria again attempted to compete at Eurovision, but still, it was considered too many countries were in the Contest already. Because of this issue and the influx of new nations wishing to compete, the following year saw the introduction of semi-finals.
In 2004, the Eurovision Song Contest saw Albania, Andorra and Belarus all made their debut, but for reasons unknown, Bulgaria decided to sit this one out.
Bulgaria's first Eurovision Song Contest
Finally, after years of trying, Bulgaria's entered their Eurovision Song Contest in 2005, the same year Moldova also entered for the first time.
To choose the first ever Bulgarian Eurovision song, BNT decided to hold a national selection called Bŭlgarskata pesen v Evroviziya 2005 (The Bulgarian Song for Eurovision 2005). The chance to represent the country at the first Eurovision proved popular, with 104 songs submitted, whittled down to 12 songs, with an 11-person jury deciding the winner, convincingly with 53% of the votes.
Bulgaria's chosen act, Kaffe performed Lorraine in the semi-final of the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest in Ukraine. Sadly, success alluded Bulgaria early, and they came 19th out of 25 in the semi-final, which was way off qualifying. Of interest, their neighbours fared much better in the semi-final, with Romania coming 1st and Moldova coming 2nd in the semi-final. Those two countries would go on to have incredible results in the Grand Final (Romania 3rd overall and Moldova 6th overall), but Bulgaria was very much left out of the action.
Unfortunately, the following year in 2006 in Athens, Bulgaria again fell short of a qualification. Mariana Popova was chosen as the Bulgarian representative and performed her song Let me cry. Performing in the dreaded "coffin spot" at second in the running order, Bulgaria finished well outside of the Top 10 required to advance to Grand Final (17th out of 23).
Breakthrough
However, Bulgaria's initial disappointment at the Eurovision Song Contest was not to last for long, as in 2007 they not only qualified, but reached the Top 10 for the first time! Performing in Helsinki after Lordi's win the year before, Bulgaria took a risk by sending what is best described as a "percussionist duo" in Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov who performed their ethno-banger Water.
This iconic song didn't just finish inside the Top 10, it gave Bulgaria a 5th place, in what would be their best result until 2016!
Qualification drought - 2008 - 2013
Fresh off the back of the 2007 success, sadly for Bulgaria, the nation saw quite the drought and were unable to qualify for the Grand Final a staggering six years in a row. One could say that there were a few robberies here and regardless, some of songs are still loved by the fandom today.
Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov came back in 2013 to have another shot but missed out on qualifying by finishing in 12th spot - unlucky.
Two other fan favourites that just missed out were Poli Genova in 2011 with her catchy rock track Na Inat (12th place) and in 2012 - Sofi Marinova with Love Unlimited, a song which Sofi was revered for singing the song with no inner-ear-piece or backing singers and absolutely killing the vocals!
Sadly, funding issues at broadcaster BNT plus the poor results saw Bulgaria take a two year hiatus from the competition.
But it wouldn't be long until they came back - with a huge bang!
Success and almost a win!
When Bulgaria returned to Eurovision in 2016 after being absent in 2014 and 2015, it took a very different approach to selecting its entries. Rather than relying on the large and sometimes complicated national selection processes used in previous years, the broadcaster took control of the selection process and focused on creating a complete, professionally produced Eurovision entry. The emphasis shifted towards selecting modern artists and songs, supported by experienced international songwriters, producers and staging teams. Big changes with Bulgaria really meaning business!
A key part of this new approach was bringing in Bulgarian composer and producer Borislav Milanov, who had previously worked with Poli Genova, and his team of songwriters, Symphonix. From 2016 his collaboration with BNT saw Bulgarian artists be matched with an international network of songwriters and producers, helping BNT develop Eurovision entries as projects rather than simply selecting a song through a traditional national competition.
The results were instant and Bulgaria finished in 4th place in 2016 with a song that is still much loved to this day, Poli Genova's If love was a crime.
In 2017, following the success of a 4th place, Bulgaria repeated this approach and selected 17-year-old Kristian Kostov to sing the ballad Beautiful Mess which was designed around Kristian and his contemporary style. At Eurovision, Kristian won his semi-final and then finished an astonishing 2nd place in the Grand Final, showing that Bulgaria's new approach was producing consistent results.
The same team were used the next year also, and there was much talk in the lead up to the Contest about the Bulgarian "super group" that had been put together for the Contest in 2018. While the song Bones was very popular in the fandom, this song didn't see the success of the previous two years and finished outside the Top 10. Bulgaria decided to take another year off from the Contest, supposedly for financial reasons.
The missed opportunity
Using the same team for its last three Eurovision appearances, Bulgaria returned in 2020 and this time with a favourite to win.
Totally unlike Bulgaria's previous songs, and not really like anything we had heard before, the song Tears getting sober was dreamy and whimsical and sung in a very delicate tone by singer Victoria. Tears getting sober was written by Victoria and the Symphonix team and was sitting at the top of the odds to win when the Contest was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic.
Was this Bulgaria's chance to have their first win? We will never know!
Victoria was internally selected to compete at Eurovision in 2021 with ballad Growing up is getting old wiht the song chosen as the favourite to go to Eurovision from Victoria's EP A little dramatic. Although the song continued the intimate style that had made Tears getting sober such a pre-contest favourite, the previously used songwriting team of Symphonix were no longer involved and instead, Victoria co-wrote the song with another team of song writers. While the entry was much loved and featured some gorgeous staging, it finished 11th in the Eurovision Grand Final in Rotterdam.
The following year in 2022 was the quite the shift and had many fans talking. Bulgarian businessman and philanthropist Milen Vrabevski was the songwriter (and said to be the financial backer) of the 2022 entry Intention by Intelligent Music Project. The rock song didn't do too well and pretty much crashed out in the semi-finals, and the less we say about that song the better!
Broadcaster BNT decided to sit out Eurovision between 2023 and 2025.
Bangaranga
Bulgaria decided to return this year, and fans were pleased. 2026 entrant DARA was chosen in a three-show national final format. Along with seven others, she advanced to the second show and through a combination of jury and public vote, she was announced as the wining artist. Later, on 28 February 2026 she performed three songs: This is me, Curse and Bangaranga. Bangaranga was the favourite with both the jury and the public vote and was declared Bulgaria's entry for Eurovision 2026.
Bangaranga translates to "riot" in Jamaican Patois and marks the first time the language had appeared at Eurovision.
As with any Eurovision lead-up without seeing staging concepts, Bulgaria was quite far down in the odds. However, once rehearsals started, DARA began to climb once the rehearsal clips were released, she started her journey up the odds. Just before the Contest, Bulgaria were sitting in third place to win at a 10% chance of winning! Bulgaria was continually polling well with the press and the audience making people start to wonder, could Bulgaria do really well here?
With a relatively small budget for a Eurovision entry, BNT proved that great staging didn't have to cost a fortune. Set in a doctor's waiting room with four back-up dancers, the staging focused on great lighting, clever camera work and really great choreography. On top of that, DARA's off-the-charts charisma shone though on camera. DARA won semi-final 2 ahead of Romania and Australia and then absolutely blitzed her performance at the Grand Final on the Saturday night.
At the Grand Final once the voting commenced after the songs, Bulgaria emerged as a serious contender for the win. It was no surprise that DARA was doing well with the public vote but the big surprise came when Bulgaria was getting high scores from juries, which included four sets of 12 points.
In the end, Bulgaria won finishing on 516 points, with a very large gap to the runners up (Israel) on 173 points. This was the largest winner margin in Eurovision history and the first time since 2017 that both the juries and public vote chose the winner.
For Bulgaria, Bangaranga wasn’t just a victory.. it was the culmination of years of near misses, reinventions, a few shockers and quiet determination. After years of building momentum and experimenting with their identity, Bulgaria finally stepped into the spotlight not as an underdog, but as a fully-fledged Eurovision powerhouse.
With Burgas now preparing to host the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest, Bulgaria's Eurovision story enters a new era.
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