Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest

Updated on Dec 05, 2023

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Appearances 10 (2 finals) Best result 4th: 2016		First appearance 2005 Worst result 19th SF: 2005

Member station Bulgarian National Television (BNT) National selection events National Final 2005–2009 2011–2012 Internal Selection 2010 2013 2016–2017

Bulgaria has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 10 times since making its debut at the 2005 contest in Kiev. The country's best result is a fourth-place finish for Poli Genova at the 2016 contest.

Bulgaria has failed to qualify for the final in eight out of ten appearances at the contest, most narrowly in 2012, when Sofi Marinova lost out on the 10th qualifying place from the second semi-final in a tie-break with Norway. Prior to 2016, Bulgaria's only entry to reach the final was Elitsa & Stoyan, who finished fifth in 2007.

History

Bulgaria first competed at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005, represented by the jazz-inspired band Kaffe with their song "Lorraine". Receiving only 49 points, they placed 19th in the semi-final and failed to qualify to the final. They were succeeded by Mariana Popova with "Let Me Cry", however she also failed to qualify for the final, coming 17th with 36 points in the semi-final.

Bulgaria's first qualification for the final came in 2007 when Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoulov performed the song "Water" (Bulgarian: Voda/Вода). This was the first Bulgarian language song to compete in the contest, placing 6th in the semi-final with 146 points. Todorova and Yankulov repeated their song in the final and received 157 points, placing 5th in a field of 24.

In previous years, if a country placed in the top 10 countries in the final they automatically qualified to the final of the next contest. Had this rule remained for the 2008 contest, Bulgaria would have directly qualified for the final. However, a change in rules due to the large intake of countries participating in the contest meant that only five countries, the host country and the Big 4 countries, would automatically qualify to the final. As such, Bulgaria were forced to compete in one of the two semi-finals of the 2008 contest in Serbia.

At the 2008 contest, Bulgaria were represented by Deep Zone & Balthazar with the song "DJ, Take Me Away". They, however, could not repeat Todorova and Yankulov's result and received only 56 points, placing 11th of 19 competing.

Bulgaria competed in the 2009 contest in Russia. Bulgaria was the first country to begin their selection for the fifth Bulgarian entry to Eurovision, with 'Be A Star', the national final, beginning in October 2008. The winner was Krassimir Avramov with his "Popera" song Illusion. It failed to qualify for the final in Moscow coming 16th out of 18 participants in the first semifinal.

In October 2009, BNT announced that Miroslav Kostadinov would represent Bulgaria at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo, Norway. He sang the song "Angel si ti" (Ангел си ти). It was the first song since 2007 to be sung in Bulgarian. However, for the third consecutive year, Bulgaria's entry failed to qualify for the final, coming 15th out of 17 participants in the semifinal.

In 2011, Bulgaria was represented by Poli Genova, and the country's entry was sung in Bulgarian for the third consecutive year. Her song was called "Na Inat", translated as "For Spite", and missed out on a place for the final after coming 12th in the second semi-final, making 2011 the fourth year in a row that Bulgaria didn't reach the final. In that year she competed with 18 more singers in the final of "EuroBGvision" (where by means of SMS voting the TV audience selects who will represent Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest). This was her fourth time in which she took part in the "EuroBGvision" and her first win.

The singer Sofi Marinova represented Bulgaria in the 2012 Eurovision contest in Baku with a song called Love Unlimited (Bulgarian: Lubov bez granitsi/Любов без граници). Her song was mainly in Bulgarian but it also contains the phrase 'I Love You' in 12 other languages including Turkish, Greek, Spanish, French and Serbian and others. Bulgaria's entry tied with Norway for 10th place in its semifinal; however, the tie broke in favor of Norway because it received points from more countries, making 2012 the fifth year in a row that Bulgaria didn't proceed and sing in the final.

In 2013, Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov were chosen through an internal selection to represent Bulgaria for a second time, this time in Malmö. Their song, Samo shampioni (Bulgarian: Само Шампиони), placed sixth in the second semifinal's televoting results, but 17th place (last) in the jury's results. The duo placed twelfth, with 45 points, thereby excluding Bulgaria from the final yet again.

Withdrawal

On 22 November 2013, Bulgaria announced that they would not be participating in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 due to financial problems.

On 15 September 2014, it was announced that Bulgaria had submitted a preliminary application to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, but one month later it was announced that they would not be returning to the contest. On 31 October 2014, it was announced that Bulgaria's participation was still undecided due to the political situation of the country. The EBU granted an extension and awaited a final decision. On 18 December 2014, BNT confirmed via their official Eurovision Twitter account that they would not take part in the 2015 Contest.

Return

On 15 September 2015, it was announced that BNT sent a preliminary application in order to compete in the 2016 contest, and the effective participation was further confirmed on 26 November 2015, thus marking the return of the country. Poli Genova represented Bulgaria for the second time (the first time being in 2011) and by placing fourth, became the highest-placing Bulgarian entry in the contest's history.