Bulgaria was sorely missed when they withdrew from Eurovision 2019. But now fans have a reason to rejoice. Bulgarian broadcaster BNT has confirmed that Bulgaria WILL return to Eurovision 2020. The return reportedly comes after BNT inked a sponsorship deal with a third party who will pick up the cost of participation.
The return was confirmed by BNT’s hype-loving twitter account. They wrote, “We are delighted to announce that Bulgaria is set to take part at #Eurovision 2020.” And promised more details would be released soon.
Official statement | Sofia, 30th of October
We are delighted to announce that Bulgaria is set to take part at #Eurovision 2020. More exciting details will follow soon. pic.twitter.com/SGTwpQfhjO
— Eurovision Bulgaria ?? (@bg_eurovision) October 30, 2019
News of the return was first reported today by the tabloid newspaper 24 Chasa. While in previous years BNT has entered into a financial partnership with the competing artist and their record label, this time the broadcaster won’t be picking up any of the tab.
24 Chasa reports that the sponsor won’t just pay for BNT’s participation fee but all associated costs, such as the production of the song and music video, staging and even costs for taking the Bulgarian Eurovision team to Rotterdam.
While the amount has not been specified, the newspaper estimates it as being between 400,000 and 500,000 levs (204,000 to 255,000 euros). The identity of the sponsor had not been revealed, but 24 Chasa claims details will soon be revealed in a press conference.
The newspaper also claims that Team Bulgaria will be working with a successful British production company. The company is reported to have previously worked with BeyoncĂ© and “other star performers”. The company is said to be headed by a man who has been the subject of a BBC documentary.
BNT’s director-general Emil Koshlukov told 24 Chasa, “Many people have money, but few invest in culture. Therefore I am grateful to the sponsor that he will make it possible for BNT. This is not money thrown into the wind. Bulgaria has had a strong performance in Eurovision, so it is worth continuing this trend, and why not pursue global production activity?”
Bulgaria’s beautiful mess at Eurovision
Bulgaria debut at Eurovision in 2005, but for the first nine years of its participation, it only qualified for the grand final once.
After a two-year break, Bulgaria returned in 2016 while a whole different attitude. The broadcaster partnered with artists and entered quality entries that fast became fan favourites. From 2016 to 2018, all three of their entries qualified for the grand final, with Kristian Kostov’s “Beautiful Mess” earning a second-place finish in Kyiv.
However, in 2018, after initially confirming for Eurovision 2019, broadcaster BNT later withdrew. The broadcaster had been troubled with debut issues and its managing board had been replaced earlier this year.
What do you think? Are you excited for Bulgaria to return to Eurovision 2020? Which artist would you like to see on stage on Rotterdam? Tell us your thoughts below.
Well I hope that fail miserably, because their atitude in 2017 was dispicable.
BNT will announce the performer on 25th November and I’m THRILLED.
I’m so happy! Great news from Bulgaria!
Now lets see which MF reject song they will pick up..
And paying good money for it. And money that God knows where it comes from…
Great news! Welcome back, Bulgaria! đ
Let’s see if they have learned from their 2018 failure…. Welcome back!
14 place in 2018 is not a failure. … what to say about the other 28 countries behind?! Equinox were very good! Staging was a little bit of a let down and possibly the reason for loosing a top5 spot
I mean, they were hyped to be a winner and then missed top 10. If you expected them to be “contender”, then its quite a faillure. This would be great place for someone who have been hidding in shadows. Like Albania that year
I screamed when I found out
Yas my favorite esc country? supoorted them every year from 2016?
Awesome! Hey, EBU: Now please go for Kazakhstan!!!
Welcome back Bulgaria đ
I hope to see Bulgaria winning soon, because they were the real winner in 2017, but sadly not the official winner.
No! The real winner was Portugal by a landslide for both jury and public vote. Try harder next time.
Obviously it’s good that Bulgaria will return but at the same time I was surprised this happened not only because of BNT’s financial problems but also because they had recently deleted their Eurovision twitter account (which was later restored). I wonder whether the timing of the announcement of Bulgaria’s return had something to do with the recent news of Hungary’s withdrawal.
Bulgaria’s return has no connection to Hungary withdraw
Hopefully a “third party” with lots of money can help pay for Bosnia to return just like Bulgaria.
I wonder how Luxemburg and Bosnia cant find a sponsor but Bulgaria can. Do they even try?
Probably not. We all heard everywhere that Bulgaria is out due to financial problems (like that’s the reason). I’ve never heard that other countries don’t tak?e part in ESC due to financial issues. Maybe they dont want to, like Slovakia.
It’s strange in the case of Bosnia, they often said that returning to the contest was or is their primary goal but still have the debts with the EBU which is probably more complex than the situation of Bulgaria. Still, I don’t see why they don’t go out looking for sponsors to participate if they really want to, plus I remember Ralph Siegel once offered BHRT to sponsor their participation if they let one of his songs represent Bosnia and they declined. So, the idea of a third party covering Bosnia’s participation isn’t really that out of the picture. Hopefully… Read more »
Yay! Can’t wait for the broadcaster’s messy tweets!
The more the merrier. I want Eurovision to last as long as possible, so bring it on.
Yay!! Fantastic news, I’m ecstatic that one of my favorite countries in Eurovision is returning. Welcome back Bulgaria!
Hurray!!!
Hello from Bulgaria đ
Bulgaria is back and I only have one thing to say about it: YES!
Yes! My happiness level is out of the roof.
That being said, I’d really like them to do something unconventional this year. Milanov’s songs are quality, but let’s give some other songwriter a chance.
Excellent news. So which Borislav Milanov song are we going to get, exactly?
Preslava for Bulgaria !!!
With this great news of Bulgaria returning, I wouldn’t be surprised if the EBU pulls a Czech Republic 2015 with Slovakia (or Luxembourg but Slovakia seems more realistic) where the EBU convinced the Czech Republic to return. I feel that if Hungary actually does withdraw this will be the case. (The EBU loves viewers so maybe they’ll change their mind on Kazahkstan)
Wasn’t the Czech return inspired by Austria winning, as it proved that Central Europe, traditionally the least successful region in the contest, could in fact win?
If this was the reason why Czech Republic retourned, then I’m always waiting for Luxembourg to come back. The NE of BENELUX won and San Marino proved that a little country can make a top 10 in televote in 2019 (plus with a bad song đ ). What is Luxembourg waiting for? đ
Slovakia will not come..our broadcaster prefer germans telenovelas more than ESC …..:(
Sad i know Slovakia can have success. They just havent got the right formula yet. For some countries it takes some time like with Czech Republic and Portugal and Finland and ofc Bulgaria
Slovakian broadcaster confirmed that they won’t take part in ESC2020 a while ago
Itâs Aly Ryan!
Just kidding. But they arenât participating to win. They donât have money to host, so why should we root for them.
I’m so so so happy they’re back!
ok they deleted my 1st comment … , free speech is in danger! Good luck BNT , i hope you represent Bulgaria with a good entry again. From the last 3 entries i most liked the last one with Jana , but for some reason people were not impressed by it , so i dont even know what Europe likes anymore , just send Azis and bring it next year to Sofia?
who is Jana?
I think you are confusing Macedonia with Bulgaria. ?
Zhana , Jana , Banana etc , same thing
Are you confusing with Jana from North Macedonia in 2017 or you’re talking about Zhana Bergdendorff the woman of Equinox in 2018? đ
While I’m happy that Bulgaria returns, who is this third party? I’m curious since they seem okay with spending THAT big.
i think they threw away more money at 2018 for what they have spent for the last 14 years or so , they have to be smart about it , and dont think how much money you can spend , but how you spend it. Hiring Sasha was a bad idea.
Bulgaria are going to win this year. Maybe poli genova might return with another belter.
I love Poli, but Bulgaria has so many great artists, so there’s no need for her to return.
So there will be 42 participating countries including Moldova. We won’t ever get pass that goddamn 43, right? -_-
This year we could have had many returns and debuts but some broadcasters acted weird
Nope. Even for Rotterdam we’d probably have a max of 41.
No we are get it 42
Russia, Moldova and Hungary still don’t confim
Seems to be looking that way. The maximum number of countries that can compete is 44, though I highly doubt that is gonna happen
isn’t the maximum 46? And also it doesn’t really matter since for JESC max. was 18 countries and in 2018 there were 20 countries.
It is 44 for this year. They have to take the timing into consideration. They probably can’t have more than 19 countries in a SF.
Technically you can have 46 in most years as a max of 20 countries are allowed in a semi (Iâm guessing they want to ensure at least over half the competing countries get to go to the final) save for when a Big 5 country hosts in which case itâd be 45.
Here’s hoping for Sofi Maranova to make a return
Hooray! Still bummed by the very real likelihood that Hungary is out, but Iâm so relieved Bulgaria is back in the game. Six to one, half a dozen the other, I suppose.
wow! seems like they’ve found sponsors which i was hoping for. i hope this time they send a song by different producers though.
Yay. This sounds like good news, especially if it’s true that they are finally switching teams.
Although it should be noted that if all European broadcasters under public law were as bad as BNT, democracy would be in serious trouble. Well, more than it already is, anyway. However, as far as Eurovision goes, this is fantastic news.
Woow, that’s some great news.. I really did not expect that.
Now we need Moldova and Hungary. I’m still hopeful that they might not have withdrawn, or even so, I would like them to have like North Macedonia in 2018.
Wait are Hungary out?
Good morning.
Oof disappointing
kind of haha… But there is no clear statement I’d say
Really hope they hadn’t withdrawn
Hopefully not. Looking at the Wikipedia page for Eurovision 2020, it has been noted that Hungary has withdrawn. This is annoying as the broadcaster has not formally stated that they will withdraw, just that they are not using ADal as the national selection. They could end up choosing their song and artist through an internal selection. As of yet, nothing has been formally stated by the Hungarian broadcaster.
Soo happy for Bulgaria coming back! They were really missed this year. This announcement took them long enough to as they were supposed to make their decision by the end of September.
What a good news! I really didn’t expect they would return.
Hungry out and Bulgaria in. Another symphonix song?
I hope so. I just Love Symphonic and the later Bulgarian entries.
This mafia-money infused ESC “participacitons” makes me want to vomit. It is sickening and is destroying Eurovision.
This is awesome! I just hope their representative will still have some artistic liberties despite everything is being sponsored.
maybe the sponsor is gery-nikol’s daddy, who knows!
Yees, Finally!!! Welcome back! Bulgaria will be back stronger than ever, maybe we will have another Ukraine 2016 or Portugal 2017? đ
Bulgaria deserves victory.
Equinox-my winner 2018.
Did Moldova fall asleep or something?
No they never reveal their participation publicly..
maybe nobody asked them about their participation