Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest

Bulgaria
Participating broadcaster	BNT
Participation summary
Appearances	5
First appearance	2005
Highest placement	5th: 2007
External links
BNT page

File:Kaffe - Bulgaria 2005.jpg

Kaffe at Kiev (2005)

Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov at Helsinki (2007)

Deep Zone & Balthazar at Belgrade (2008)

Bulgaria has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest five times.

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 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 semi final.

Bulgaria are now looking toward the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Bærum.

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	Miroslav Kostadinov

Voting history (2005-2009)

Bulgaria has given the most points to...

Rank	Country	Points
1	Greece	58
2	Armenia	30
3	Turkey	29
4	Macedonia	23
5	Russia	21

Bulgaria has received the most points from...

Rank	Country	Points
1	Greece	12
2	Cyprus	10
=	Hungary	10
=	Spain	10
5	Macedonia	8

NOTE: The totals in the above tables include only points awarded in Eurovision finals, and not the semi-finals.

External links

• Points to and from Bulgaria eurovisioncovers.co.uk