When Bulgaria announced that Elitsa & Stoyan would sing “Kismet” at ESC, our Bulgarian correspondent Xander said “Hell to the no!” and suggested that BNT would eventually replace it. Looks like he was right.

Here’s a quick re-cap. Elitsa & Stoyan performed three songs at the national final—”Kismet”, “Samo Shampioni” and “Dzupai Libe Boso”. All of them mixed Bulgarian folk, tribal-sounding drums and electronic samples. Both the jury and the televoters ranked “Dzupai Libe Boso” last. Good thing: It was a three-minute train wreck that included rappers.

The jury and the public couldn’t, however, agree on which song was best. The jury went for “Samo Shampioni”, while the public went for “Kismet”. Ties are decided by the public vote, hence “Kismet” got the victory.

Xander, our U.S.-based Bulgaria correspondent, described “Kismet” like this:

Another weak choice for Bulgaria. The song starts out like a warm-up session for a Bulgarian folk-singing class, because nothing happens in the first half except Elitsa and her backing vocals singing long, drawn-out notes. Things pick up in the second-half, but the incredibly boring first-half ruins the whole thing for me.

And he quickly found that he wasn’t alone. Here’s what he found on Eurovision fan sites in Bulgaria:

I just read on Bulgarian discussion boards that pretty much no Eurovision fans in Bulgaria voted for “Kismet”, so there’s now this question going around: Was the vote manipulated somehow? I think some Bulgarian Eurovision fans are going to request BNT to conduct an internal investigation. These are rumors/conspiracy theories for now, but just like with Belarus last year, voter fraud is possible and something may come out of the outcry….”Kismet” means “luck”, and I personally think this song is going to need A LOT of luck to qualify in Malmo!”

Even better than luck is a new song entirely. Here’s “Samo Shampioni”. What do you think? Do you think the fact that FYR Macedonia decided to change their song gave Bulgaria the confidence to do the same?

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Darewolf
Darewolf
11 years ago

I like this song. In my opinion the best song for now. Good luck Bulgaria.

Ania
Ania
11 years ago

I didn’t like any of the three songs, they are all miles away from “Voda”! I expected more from them…. i say better luck next time.

AlAlekoff
AlAlekoff
11 years ago

Xander, you are spot on. I seriously doubt more than a few thousand people even participated in the vote. Kismet was liked by the older people, even my grandma liked it more and I am sure it was them who tuned in for the show on March 3rd as they do not really protest and do not really like the action-packed series on the bTV channel! I follow Eurovision for 15 years and my Sunday was so busy I totally forgot to even check what’s going on, so I could not vote either. At the end of the day, this… Read more »

Xander
Xander
11 years ago

@AlAlekoff Not only that, but March 3rd was a day of massive protests and demonstrations in Bulgaria. That’s an unfortunate factor that cannot be ignored.

AlAlekoff
AlAlekoff
11 years ago

The real reason was public pressure, no matter what BNT says. There was a huge movement for replacing the song, which eventually would have led to protests in front of the BNT building. There was an issue with the voting as far as I can tell – the Eurovision show was put on a Sunday evening, when the biggest private channel in the country airs the most popular Bulgarian TV series. That basically meant few viewers under the age of 40 were even aware a vote was going on and it was the young viewers, who pushed for song change!

Sokratis
Sokratis
11 years ago

Bulgarias issue here clearly is why have a public vote if your going to switch the choice anyway? I would be angry if I was one who voted for Kismet.

FYRM is well within their rights to change the song, but the issue there is think before you act!

And if theres gonna be a change of song elsewhere, my tip is that Romania is going to have some big televote scandal. Praying Emilia gets reinstated as the Romanian choice…

Zolan
Zolan
11 years ago

“Tweet Birdy, Tweet Tweet Tweet” is San Marino’s backup song 😉

Gavin
Gavin
11 years ago

Have to slight improvement… im glad the song was changed as seriously the other was just wailing and not in a good way.

So what you think… will Sweeden change their entry next week and go with the producers chioce? Will Bonnie Tyler be revealed as a hoax and actually Its Girls Aloud? Maybe Anouk will change her song to “tweet birdy tweet tweet tweet” Are any of the songs in fact real? Is this a competition and should we get a say?

sorry?

whats that?

change the tune?

well… really.

Xander
Xander
11 years ago

@Alex B

Honestly I do not know. I am on break at college now and just found out about the switch right now 😛 It could be copyright, the bad press that was received, or even televoting fraud similar to Belarus last year. I will search for more information and let you know if I find anything.

Joyces
Joyces
11 years ago

Here we go again…who’s next?

Alex B
Alex B
11 years ago

@Xander

What do you think is the real reason it was changed since you are more in the know than us non Bulgarians?

Copyright or the bad press it received?

Xander
Xander
11 years ago

Haha, well you know my reaction to this 😛

Alex B
Alex B
11 years ago

So, what we are seeing here is that either the Bulgarian selectors are inept for not getting proper clearances, or the song was changed because of the negative reaction it received from non Bulgarian listeners.

Whatever the real story, it does not cast the Bulgarian entry in the best light.

alexander
alexander
11 years ago

Isn’t Eurovision anymore! All countries are changing their song!

Mariyan
Mariyan
11 years ago

It turns out that it was more than confidence that BNT had, in order to change the song. Apparently, one of “Kismet”‘s producers is from Argentina, which contradicts the Eurovision rules. They say that BNT was “misleaded” by one of the Bulgarian producers that all rights were arranged, so they didn’t see that problem coming. Well, I hope now people will be satisfied with the choice.

Nathalie
11 years ago

I liked Kismet more, reminds me of Corvus Corax so much!