Bulgaria boasts soaring Imperial Eagles, a booming summer tourism industry and rapidly expanding renewable energy sources. Unfortunately when it comes to Bulgaria at Eurovision, Sofia suffers repeat non-qualification, claims few 12 Points awarded in the Semi-Finals and holds one of the overall poorest records of any country since the introduction of the Semis in 2008. Since then Sofia has received 0 sets of 12 points, failed to qualify for any Final and averaged 13th Place in the Semi-Finals. Yikes!
Recent History in the Competition:
2013: Elitsa and Stoyan with ‘Samo shampioni’, 12th Place in the Semi-Final with 45 Points
2012: Sofi Marinova with ‘Love Unlimited,’ 11th Place in the Semi-Final with 45 Points
2011: Poli Genova with ‘Na Inat’, 12th Place in the Semi-Final with 48 Points
2010: Miro with ‘Angel Si Ti’, 15th Place in the Semi-Final with 19 Points
2009: Krassimir Avramov with ‘Illusion’, 16th Place in the Semi-Final with 7 Points
2008: Deep Zone & Balthazar with ‘DJ Take Me Away’, 11th Place in the Semi-Final with 56 Points
Finals Qualified For 2008-13: 0.
Bulgaria By Numbers:
How Many Languages Does Sofi Marinova use to deply her unlimited love? Ten languages.
How many sets of 10 Points have Bulgaria received in the Semi-Finals? 4. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
How many people on stage besides Poli Genova had parts of their head shaved? 3.
How many times did Deep Zone & Balthazar ask the Eurovision audience to ‘take them away’ from the Belgrade Stage? 13 Times.
How often did Elitsa and Stoyan play the drums in ‘Samo Shampioni’? A LOT.
Best Scoring Entry:
Deep Zone & Balthazar with ‘DJ Take Me Away’, 11th Place in the SF with 56 Points in the Semi-Final
I rather enjoy this car-crash once it gets going about a minute in. It might be the way she moves that fan or how she pouts but I kinda dig Yoanna’s vocal, and despite the simplicity of the song, it’s pretty damn catchy. If it weren’t for the overly extended introduction and that frankly annoying DJ deck-spinning, Bulgaria would have been on to a qualifier for sure! They have a slightly creepy older DJ. The commanding female vocal presence and camera angles kept you rapt. Given that this was in keeping with the dance-theme of songs on show in Belgrade it deserved to sneak into the Final.
Most Memorable Lyric: When the night falls down, I want you, DJ Please Take Me Away. And when the Lights go down, I need you, DJ Please Take Me Away. It’s rumoured in Eurovision circles that the lyrics for this song took months of deliberation.
http://youtu.be/MLLkumF7EkE
Worst Scoring Entry:
Krassimar Avramov with ‘Illusion’ 16th Place in the SF with 7 Points
In the immortal words of Edna Mode, “NO CAPES!” I was cringing from the first ‘gimme, gimme.’ Those words are the personal property of one Eurovision group and one only Krassimar, hands off. I’m not entirely taken by the garishly dressed harem he’s acquired, as I’m fairly sure the rest of Europe wasn’t. The soaring backing vocal overshadows Krassimar and its painfully high-pitched. Midway through the crazed song it decides its an ethnic dance tune, and then Krassimar starts on the falsetto. The addition of stilt-walkers takes this beyond 2008’s car-crash into train-wreck territory.
Most Memorable Lyric: Your lips can solve it for me.? You don’t know how.? You don’t know where to go, to go. Ohh err Krassimar, you are naughty.
http://youtu.be/H7AO-XDuLo0
And here’s what Team Wiwi have to say:
Wiwi: Sofi Marinova was robbed. Titty-tastic and not afraid to wear animal print, she was brazen, unique and totally deserving of a spot in the final. Sorry Esma. Sofi is the real gypsy queen. “I love you so muuuuuuuuch.” My least favourite act was the man on stilts who had sucked all that helium before his semi. I can’t remember his name and I can’t be bothered to look it up. I just know it sounded like “crass”, which is fitting.
http://youtu.be/qMrQjr7wSVA
So what do you all think? Was Team Wiwi crazy not to mention Poli Genova’s fury-ridden turn in 2011? Did Elitsa and Stoyan deserve praise for braving almost certain non-qualification to try and deliver for their country? Did Miro’s smouldering gaze and angellic staging deserve better? Comment below!
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Photo: Alan Douait (EBU)
Hello mates, how is all, and what you want to say on the topic of this article, in my view its really remarkable for me.
2008 (Deep Zone & Balthazar, ‘DJ Take Me Away’) – This song actually wasn’t bad. Definitely should’ve qualified, but I think it would’ve placed last in the final. Not my favourite song from Bulgaria but it’s up there. 2009 (Krassimir Avramov, ‘Illusion’) – I did not enjoy this song whatsoever. It’s kinda annoying and they sounded terrible live. Just no. 2010 (Miro, ‘Angel si ti’) – This song actually annoyed me a lot, I was not a fan of it at all, and it kinda put me in a bad mood for the rest of the night I first heard… Read more »
When someone writes an post he/she retains the thought of a user in
his/her brain that how a user can understand it. Thus that’s why this piece of writing is outstdanding. Thanks!
Since 2011, they’ve been unfairly shunned. They also been growing in quality stadily over the years. I can’t stop listening to Samo Shampioni. E & S are one of the absolute best performers (I take evreything as a whole) ever to be sent. Best decision they ever made, only to be pushed aside by the likes of Hungary (dreadful and overrated 3 minutes of nothing happening), Georgia (CopyPaste of last year, not as good) and Armenia (it’s fine, but I really thought they were over) I also believe that the voting system screwed over many performers royally. I hope they… Read more »
2011 was one of their best entries. Unfortunately, it was in one of the toughest semis in ESC history. 2012’s semi pool also was also no cakewalk either, but Sofi was very close to qualifying.
2013. Had a weak semi-final, great song, great reprisal act from 2007, and the juries murdered them.
Poli not making it was the biggest robbery in semi final history.
Wiwi, the percussion in “Water” made the song soar. Without it, they probably would’ve scored in the right side of the leaderboard.
Dude, there’s more to songs than just the singing. It’s not the Eurovision A Cappella Contest.
@Wiwi Bloggs – True, but it’s the percussion that made the song soar. Elitsa & Stoyan crashed (undeservedly, in my opinion) in the semis this year because their approach was unoriginal.
@Anthony Yes I meant since the introduction of the dual semi-final format 🙂
@Angus Quinn, The semi-finals were first introduced in 2004, unless you were referring to the current format of two semi-finals introduced in 2008.
Hi @Anthony and @D the reason I haven’t mentioned 2007 is because the profiles are meant to be from 2008, when the semifinals were introduced so that comparisons are easier and so the profiles themselves feel quite recent 🙂 !
“Na Inat” gets my #1 spot, although I prefer the NF version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShmY4TrFLwQ
Bulgaria were robbed by juries in 2012 and 2013.
For me, the most fair thing is Televoting (75%) and jury (25%)
Since 2008? As D mentioned, you’ve missed out the only year Bulgaria reached the Grand Final so far!
Poli and Miro were WRONGED!!! Exspecially Poli. I´ve always said that 2011 was a great contest with lousy results.
Why no mention of Elitsa & Stoyan singing ‘Water’ and earning 5th place in the final in 2007?