They’ve staged one of the most remarkable turnarounds at the Eurovision Song Contest ever, placing fourth and second following years of non-qualification and non-participation.
And on Sunday Bulgaria’s BNT confirmed that they will keep the momentum going by participating at Eurovision 2018 in Lisbon.
They made the announcement on their official Eurovision Twitter feed — first in English and then in Spanish. Both tweets were deleted quickly after they went up, causing many in the fandom — including us — to have a minor meltdown.
But we’ve reached out to our contacts at BNT who assure us that they are back in the game for sure.
Earlier in the summer they confirmed their participation, only to rescind it because of a leadership change at the broadcaster. BNT’s forced delay had many fans worrying about whether they would return to the contest after finishing as runner-up in Kyiv with Kristian Kostov.
In early August BNT’s official Eurovision Twitter account explained that the broadcaster was electing a new director general on August 23, and that the broadcaster’s policy regarding Eurovision would be announced afterwards.
And today confirmation of participation finally came.
Bulgaria knows that good things come to those who wait. You’ll remember that Poli Genova was the last artist to reveal her Eurovision song ahead of Eurovision 2016. At the contest, Poli stormed to Bulgaria’s best ever result at the time, finishing 4th.
And they managed to go two places better with Kristian, whose electro-ballad “Beautiful Mess” featured magical monochrome staging, under the direction of Swedish stage guru Sacha Jean-Baptiste.
Ahead of Eurovision, wiwiblogger Robyn suggested that staging would be key for success. She wrote:
“Beautiful Mess” sounds like something right out of the pop charts (or a Spotify playlist). It has a very current sound and Kristian delivers a mature and emotional vocal. The song does feel a bit repetitive and it doesn’t quite reach a satisfying conclusion, but it sounds like Bulgaria has some clever staging planned that might make it all work.
Are you excited that Bulgaria is headed back to Eurovision? Do you think they’ll be extra hungry for a win following last year’s second place? And who do you think could secure the victory? Let us know in the comments box below.
Read more Bulgaria Eurovision news
Photo: Andres Putting (EBU/Eurovision.tv)
Nah, wont get better than Kristian. Maybe in one or 2 years. Next year Poland or Italy will probably surprise us all.
@Ronda …I liked Bulgarian entry myself, but that guy was CRYING for not winning. Isn’t that too much??
All I can say…you must be a robot. Don’t you cry ever? Especially when you feel you were so close? Never? You have a problem if you can’t cry.
Really want to say something else. Crying can be a cultural thing. I don’t know what country you are from, but in some cultures people express feeling very easy and openly. To be second is always frustrating. It’s humanly.
Sorry, but you don’t have to cry when you lose. That’s childish. Even the kids in Junior Eurovision accept their results laughing and clapping.
Levina was crying too. Is she weak because of that?
Levina was crying because she has just understood that she was fooled by songwriter of her song as it was a copy of titanium.
He was whiny indeed.
Such great news!!
Bulgaria offers such good songs the last 2 years! If they continue like this, they will win in a year or 2!
It will be beautiful to have the contest in the Balkan region again! And they can be a good host, they held the Junior Eurovision before!
Bulgaria supporter here! Go Bulgaria!
Bulgaria may well win sometime in the next few years, but hopefully it will happen with something more honest and less calculated.
*more honest and less calculated than “Beautiful Mess”, that is…
They are the poorest country in the EU, and it makes me happy when they succeed. Go Bulgaria, show us once again you do not need fireworks to win!
What about Moldova being the poorest?
Even better. Bulgaria 2nd in Kyiv, Moldova 3rd in Kyiv.
Portugal the winner is not the richest either.
I love when talent wins over money, but I admit I look at national selection too.
Moldova was the most democratic, everybody was welcomed, even the silly ones. Portugal invited the song-writers…so it was kind of exclusive. Bulgaria did everything behind close doors, looking for rich artists or record labels.
Moldova=the real winner.
Moldova is not in the EU.
Now I’ve noticed that Nickc said ”the poorest country in the EU”.
Moldova is not in EU.
Moldova isn’t in EU
The more the married, but please bring a better song and especially a nicer person to Lisbon
*marrier
Nicer than Kris? What was wrong with him?
Too much of a fake guy. Caring more about appearance than substance and didn’t take the second place gracefully, although it was a huge success for Bulgaria, IMHO
So you decide what is the level of each country? Kristian Kostov could’ve won, and his country is waiting since ever, just like Portugal. Is hard to take it easy when you are second, and remember what Salvador has said the first time when he was on the red carpet in Kyiv-”If I don’t win, I will fire her ass”(Luisa’s). Don’t claim that Salvador was that pure guy living in the clouds. He knew exactly what to do to win over Italy…Bulgaria…Belgium…
F….. You don’t get the jokes, do you? He wasn’t serious when he said that For God’s sake.
I liked Bulgarian entry myself, but that guy was CRYING for not winning. Isn’t that too much?? I mean, you got second place. That’s AMAZING considering that his country missed the finals 8 years in a row.
Thank you!!!!
First of all I don’t decide anything. So I don’t get your comment. Second of all, yes he could have won, but didn’t and it was not by a small margin. He should have been happy because it was the first time Bulgaria got second place. Thirdly and more importantly he was making a joke, for God’s sake… And yes, he knew exactly what to do… to sing.
And anyway, why have you brought Salvador into this? I haven’t even mentioned him?… I guess the fanatic obsessed is you, lumiere!
YASSSSSS Bulgaria is in, now go on and win it 🙂
Not you again. Have you discovered caps lately?
It would be great a bulgarian winner in Lisboa.
Why in spanish?
Good question…
There are plenty of other Countries that should win before Bulgaria. Kazakhstan being one of them.
what makes a country that never participated most qualified to win? b*tch please….
I want Sofi Marinova to make a return and win! #SOFIA2018
(she was robbed in 2012!)
Last year they got a total of six submissions and they were lucky enough to have a strong one. Let’s see if this time around there are more people interested, and especially if there’s success material in there.
*ten submissions
I doubt they’ll reach top 5 again next year.
Oh yeah, BNT also didn’t cover most participation costs lol
Bulgaria choose Dara or Gery Nikol!!!
Gery-Nikol is on an independent label, they would never let her participate also because of her antics. She wants to have control on everything and she just has a strong artistic identity. They probably want another Virginia Records puppet to control as they wish.
Poli Genova isn’t part of Virginia Records either so I don’t think that Bulgaria needs to send someone who is part of Virginia Records.
I didn’t imply that. I only implied that they would never send a 2013 Miley Cyrus-sized controversial singer.
What I have noticed in the past few years is that countries like Azerbaijan and Greece that were successful in the past are struggling nowadays while countries like Belgium and Bulgaria that struggled in the past are now having a lot of success. (There are of course countries like Sweden and Russia that always continue to be successful.)
Very happy bulgaria go esc 2018 lisbon <3 . My dreams represent bulgaria in esc a gery nicol ,mihaela marinova ,preslava <3 .
Gery-Nikol and only Gery-Nikol she is the nicest bulgarian singer ,also Dara and Tita are good bulgarian singers check them out all 🙂
Dara and Tita are literally Gery-Nikol copycats, once you’ve heard the original one the other two won’t have a lot to offer.
What about JESC??
Your asking the right questions here. Maybe the EBU is trying to keep it as one of the “surprises to come”…
It does not look promising with JESC, they just stated.
Bulgaria better confirm Junior Eurovision participation! 😮
Nothing!
We won’t participat this year.