Bulgaria in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015

Host country selection

Following Italy's win at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2014, the European Broadcasting Union had given the Italian broadcaster RAI the first refusal to host the 2015 contest. However, on 15 January 2015, RAI declined the right to host the contest. The Executive Supervisor for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, Vladislav Yakovlev, praised the Italian broadcaster RAI for their time looking into the possibilities of hosting, even though they made their début appearance in 2014, and further explained how the EBU were in a lucky position to have received bids from two countries.

The EBU announced later that day that they had received bids from two countries to host the contest; those countries being Bulgaria and Malta, who finished in second and fourth places respectively in 2014. Bulgarian broadcaster BNT confirmed on 15 January they had submitted a bid to host the 2015 contest. The national broadcaster for Malta, Public Broadcasting Services (PBS), stated prior to the 2014 contest that they would host again if they won.

On 26 January 2015, it was announced that Bulgaria had been chosen to host the 2015 edition, which took place on the 21 November 2015. It will be the first time that the nation will have organised any Eurovision event. In March 2015, it was confirmed that Sofia would be the host city, with the Arena Armeec being the host venue.

Artist selection

In a joint organised event, Bulgarian broadcasters BNT and bTV, opened submissions between 3–23 July for singers aged between 10-15 to send their audio or video recordings to the Slavi Show team. After the deadline, a professional jury of music experts selected the best ones to proceed to the audition heats round. The selected singers were invited to perform live, in a series of audition heats, in front of a different jury made up of music experts and representatives from the three organisations to select the acts going forward to a live shows.

The process to select the representative began on 17 August 2015 during the "Slavi's Show", the programme in which Krisia, Hasan & Ibrahim were discovered. The selection procedure included internal heats, semi-finals and a national final which were broadcast during prime time. A total of 24 stars were internally selected to compete at the live semi-finals where a three-person professional jury, made up of the faces behind last year’s entry "Planet of the Children" (Slavi Trifonov and Evgeni Dimitrov) and Orlin Pavlov, would select 8 finalists out of 12. The audience, through SMS voting, were in charge of deciding the other 4 finalists. The winning participant who will represent Bulgaria on home soil, will be selected by a 50/50 combination of both telephone vote and the votes of jury members made up of music professionals. The song that the winning artist will perform at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest will be chosen internally by the national broadcaster and announced at a later date.

Semi-finals

In the semifinals, six children will each perform a three-minute pop song together with the 'Ku Ku Band' - the resident band of "Slavi's show". The public will be able to choose their favourite of the six to go to the final, by voting online and by SMS. The jury will choose another two artists, making a total of three from each show and 12 finalists overall. Petya Dikova, a liftstyle journalist from bTV, and Boris Soltariyski, one of the backing vocalists for "Ku-Ku Band", will be the hosts for both the semi-finals and the final. The semifinals will take place each day between the 31 August to 3 September. Twelve participants qualified from the semi-finals, and will go on to compete in the televised live final on 8 September. The winner will go on to represent Bulgaria at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015, on home soil.

The first semi-final took place on 31 August. Eleonora Ivanova, Pavel Mateev and Ivan Stoyanov advanced to the final.

The second semi-final took place on 1 September. Lora Gerdzhikova, Simona Ivanova and Filip Filchev advanced to the final.

The third semi-final took place on 2 September. Andrea Nacheva, Gabriela Yordanova and Dilyan & Kostadin Dyankov advanced to the final.

The fourth and last semi-final took place on 3 September. Radko Petkov, Mariam Mavrova and Gergana Todorova advanced to the final.

Final

The live final took place on the 8 September 2015. The results were determined by a 50/50 combination of both telephone vote and the votes of jury members made up of music professionals. Gabriela Yordanova was declared the winner of the selection.

Song presentation

On 16 October 2015, the title of the Bulgarian song was revealed. The song would be called "Colour of Hope" (Tsvetut na nadezhdata). It was officially presented on 18 October 2015 during the show "The day starts on Sunday with Georgi Lyubenov" on BNT. It was also revealed that Gabriela would be accompanied by the runner-up of the national selection, Ivan Stoyanov.

Gabriela Yordanova

Gabriela Yordanova (Bulgarian: Габриела Йорданова; born 5 November 2003 in Ruse, Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian singer. She began singing aged three and a half years old at the Vocal Group “Sluntse”(Sun). At the age of four she took part in her first International Competition for young performers, “RechniNoti”(River Notes), where she won first prize - from there she has gone on to have much success!

Gabi has been on stage for eight years, taking part in many competitions in Bulgaria and abroad in places such as Kazakhstan, Russia, Hungary, Romania, Belarus, Italy. Since the age of eight she has been singing at “Milka Stoeva” Burgas with vocal pedagogy teacher Marieta Seklemova. Composer Plamen Mirchev-Mirona has been her vocal pedagogy teacher for the last 18 months.

Gabi has performed with many Bulgarian pop music stars including Neli Rangelova, Orlin Goranov, Kamelia Todorova, Kamelia Voce, Ani Varbanova, and Petia Buiuklieva to name but a few. In 2014 she shared the stage with Lili Ivanova, the Prima of Bulgarian Pop Music at the Bulgarian concert which was part of the “Slavyanski Bazar” (Slavic Bazar) Festival .Gabi has also performed with the Big Band of the Bulgarian National Radio as well as the Rousse Jazz Syndicate and group “Acapella”.

On 8 September 2015, Gabriela Yordanova was voted the winner of the Bulgarian national selection, receiving a total of 22 points from a 50/50 combination of both telephone and jury votes. Yordanova represented Bulgaria at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015 on home soil with the song "Colour of Hope", finishing in ninth place with 62 points.

Ivan Stoyanov

Ivan Stoyanov (Bulgarian: Иван Стоянов) is a child singer from Burgas. He was part of the Bulgarian national selection for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015, where he finished second behind Gabriela. Ivan took the opportunity to accompany her during the contest, where he and Gabi came ninth with 62 points.

Colour of hope

Colour of hope is a song by Bulgarian child singers Gabriela Yordanova and Ivan Stoyanov. It represented Bulgaria on home soil during the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015, coming 9th out of 17 entries with 62 points. It is composed and written by the same team, which created Bulgaria's previous Junior Eurovision entry, performed by Krisia with Hasan & Ibrahim.

At Junior Eurovision

At the running order draw which took place on 15 November 2015, host country Bulgaria were drawn to perform thirteenth on 21 November 2015, following Ukraine and preceding San Marino.

Final

Flanked by rainbows, the song starts with a focus on Gabi, who performs the first verse on the edge of the catwalk. Behind her, four rhythmic gymnasts perform intricate tricks with ribbons and balls. During the second verse, Ivan takes to the stage, and the final chorus ends the song with the two talented young performers harmonizing together.

Voting

The voting during the final consisted of 50 percent public televoting and 50 percent from a jury deliberation. The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury could be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member were released one month after the final.

Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that Bulgaria had placed fifth with the public televote and sixteenth (second-to-last) with the jury vote. In the public vote, Bulgaria scored 77 points, while with the jury vote, Bulgaria scored 14 points.

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Bulgaria and awarded by Bulgaria in the final and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the final.

Points awarded by Bulgaria