Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest

Bulgaria
Member station	BNT
Appearances
Appearances	7
First appearance	2005
Best result	5th: 2007
Worst result	3rd last: SF 2009, 2010
External links
BNT page
Bulgaria's page at Eurovision.tv

Bulgaria has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest seven times since their debut at the 2005 contest in Kiev.

Kaffe at Kiev (2005)

Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov at Helsinki (2007)

Deep Zone & Balthazar at Belgrade (2008)

History of Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest

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 first qualified for the final 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, and was also the first, and so far only, Bulgarian song to qualify for the final, placing 6th in the semi-final with 146 points. Todorova and Yankulov repeated their song in the final and received 157, placing 5th in a field of 24.

In previous years, if a country placed in the top 10 countries of the final they were 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 participatng 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 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 will 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 in the final after coming 12th in the second semi-final, making 2011 the fourth year in a row that Bulgaria has had to sit out the final. In 2011 she competed with 18 more singers in the final of the "EuroBGvision" (where by SMS' it's decided who'll represent Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest. This was her fourth time in which she took part in the "EuroBGvision" and her first win.

Contestants

Year	Artist	Title	Final	Points	Semi	Points
2005	Kaffe	"Lorraine"	X	X	19	49
2006	Mariana Popova	"Let Me Cry"	X	X	17	36
2007	Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov	"Water"	5	157	6	146
2008	Deep Zone & Balthazar	"DJ, Take Me Away"	X	X	11	56
2009	Krassimir Avramov	"Illusion"	X	X	16	7
2010	Miro	"Angel si ti" (Ангел си ти)	X	X	15	19
2011	Poli Genova	"Na Inat" (На Инат)	X	X	12	48
2012	Sofi Marinova	"Love Unlimited"

Voting history (2005-2011)

Bulgaria has given the most points to...

Rank	Country	Points
1	Greece	73
2	Turkey	39
3	Armenia	38
4	Ukraine	28
5	Russia	25

Bulgaria has received the most points from...

Rank	Country	Points
1	Greece	12
2	Cyprus	10
=	Hungary	10
=	Spain	10
3	Macedonia	8
4	Czech Republic	7
=	Malta	7
=	Slovenia	7
5	Turkey	6
=	Austria	6

Including the semi-finals

Bulgaria has given the most points to...

Rank	Country	Points
1	Greece	73
2	Macedonia	50
3	Turkey	48
4	Armenia	40
5	Ukraine	33
6	Cyprus	32
7	Russia	27
	Romania	27
8	Azerbaijan	23
9	Belarus	20

Bulgaria has received the most points from...

Rank	Country	Points
1	Cyprus	53
2	Macedonia	35
3	Turkey	33
4	Moldova	28
5	Greece	22
6	Spain	21
	France	21
7	Hungary	13
	Albania	13

NOTE: The tables with points from 2004 include points awarded in both finals and semi-finals where the highest point from the final/semi-final is picked.

Commentators & Spokespeople

Year(s)	Commentator	Spokesperson
2005	Elena Rosberg & Georgi Kushvaliev	Evgenia Atanasova
2006	Elena Rosberg & Georgi Kushvaliev	Dragomir Simeonov
2007	Elena Rosberg & Georgi Kushvaliev	Mira Dobreva
2008	Elena Rosberg & Georgi Kushvaliev	Valentina Voykova
2009	Elena Rosberg & Georgi Kushvaliev	Yoanna Dragneva
2010	Elena Rosberg & Georgi Kushvaliev	Desislava Dobreva
2011	Elena Rosberg & Georgi Kushvaliev	Maria Ilieva

External links

• Points to and from Bulgaria eurovisioncovers.co.uk