Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026

Bulgaria is set to be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "Bangaranga", written by Anne Judith Wik, Cristian Tarcea, Darina Yotova and Dimitris Kontopoulos, and performed by Yotova under her stage name Dara. The Bulgarian participating broadcaster, Bulgarian National Television (BNT), organised Natsionalnata selektsiya in order to select its entry for the contest.

Prior to the 2026 contest, Bulgarian National Television (BNT) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Bulgaria fourteen times since its first entry in 2005. Its best result in the contest was second, which it achieved in 2017 with the song "Beautiful Mess" performed by Kristian Kostov. To this point, it had achieved another two top five placings at the contest: in 2007 when "Water" performed by Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov placed fifth and in 2016 when "If Love Was a Crime" performed by Poli Genova placed fourth. In 2022, Bulgaria failed to qualify for the final with the song "Intention" performed by Intelligent Music Project.^[1]

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, BNT organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster has used various methods to select its entry in the past, including the national final Bŭlgarskata pesen v „Evroviziya” between 2005 and 2013 (used only to select the song in 2010 and 2013, with the artists internally selected), as well as full internal selections between 2016 and 2018, in 2021 and 2022.^[2] Bulgaria did not participate in the contest in 2014, 2015, 2019, and between 2023 and 2025; its most recent absence was originally motivated by financial constraints.^[3] On 31 October 2025, BNT announced it would return to the contest in 2026.^[4] The following day, Fakti.bg reported that the broadcaster would have organized a national final to select its entry for the contest;^[5] the organization of a national final was confirmed on 18 November 2025, but it was not specified whether it would concern only the artist or both the artist and the song.^[6]

Natsionalnata selektsiya (Националната селекция) was the national final format developed by BNT in order to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. The event took place at BNT Studio 1 in Sofia, on the 31 January and 28 February 2026, to determine the artist and song respectively.^[6] All shows, which was broadcast on BNT 1, as well as online via the broadcaster's website bnt.bg, was hosted by Georgi Lyubenov and Boryana Gramatikova, with Vladimira Ilieva serving as backstage host.^[7][8]

The selection of the Bulgarian Eurovision entry took place over two stages. The first stage was the artist selection, which consisted of two televised shows on 24 and 31 January 2026, and involved 15 competing acts performing their own previous songs. In the first show, all 15 artists competed and eight acts were selected to advance to the second show based on the combination of votes from the public and a five-member expert jury. Each juror awarded a score from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) to each artist, while the public vote awarded a set of points from 1 (lowest) to 15 (highest). Initially, seven artists that had the highest number of points were supposed to advance, but due to a tie between two acts, both were selected to proceed. In the second show, the eight remaining artists were voted upon by the combination of the public vote and five-member expert jury in order to select the winning artist. Each juror awarded a score from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) to each artist, while the public vote awarded a set of points from 1 (lowest) to 8 (highest); the artist that had the highest number of combined points was declared the winner. The second stage was the song selection, which took place on 28 February 2026, which featured the winning artist performing three candidate songs. The winning song was selected via the 50/50 combination of votes from a public vote and a ten-member expert jury. Each juror awarded a score from 1 (lowest) to 3 (highest) to each song, and a set of points from 1 to 3 was distributed based on ranking of the combined scores. The public vote awarded an additional set of points from 1 to 3, and the song with the highest number of combined points was declared the winner. Viewers were able to cast a vote via BNT's website during all shows.^[9][10]

On 18 November 2025, BNT signed an agreement with Prophon to jointly select the competing artists for the national final, with acts invited based on data provided by Prophon on the Top 40 ranking of the most played artists on digital platforms in Bulgaria over the preceding eight months.^[6] The 15 competing acts were selected by a panel consisting of representatives of BNT and Prophon, and announced on 30 December 2025.^[10]

The artist selection stage consisted of two shows that took place on 24 and 31 January 2026. In the first show, eight artists instead of seven qualified to the second show due to a tie between Roksana and Innerglow, following the combination of votes awarded by a public vote and a five-member jury panel. In the second show, Dara was selected as the winning artist by the combination of votes awarded by the public and jury.^[11] The jury consisted of Milen Mitev, Vasil Petrov, Toni Dimitrova, Rushi Vidinliev and Petar Dundakov in the first show, and Nina Nikolina, Lubo Kirov, Bogdana Karadocheva, Krisko and Victoria Chalkitis in the second show.^[12][13]

In addition to the competing artists, guest performers in the first show were former Bulgarian Eurovision entrants – Kristian Kostov (2017), Victoria Georgieva (2021) and Krisia Todorova (Junior 2014), while guest performers in the second show were Ivo Dimchev, Nevena Tsoneva, Eldar Gasimov (who won Eurovision for Azerbaijan in 2011 alongside Nigar Jamal), and Alis and Aidan (who would respectively represent Albania and Malta in 2026).^[14][15]

The song selection show took place on 28 February 2026, where the winning artist, Dara, performed three candidate songs. The winning song, "Bangaranga", was selected by the 50/50 combination of votes awarded by a public vote and a ten-member jury panel. The jury consisted of Milen Mitev, Vasil Petrov, Toni Dimitrova, Rushi Vidinliev, Petar Dundakov, Nina Nikolina, Lubo Kirov, Bogdana Karadocheva, Krisko and Victoria Chalkitis.^[19]

In addition to the competing songs, guest performers were Bion, Rob Money, Bon-Bon (which represented Bulgaria in Junior Eurovision 2007), Deep Zone Project (which represented Bulgaria in 2008), Senhit (who represented San Marino in 2021 and would soon be selected to be their 2026 representative as well), and Eva Marija (who would represent Luxembourg in 2026).^[20][21]

The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 will take place at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria, and consist of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 12 and 14 May and the final on 16 May 2026. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final will progress to the final. On 12 January 2026, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country will perform in; the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.^[22] Bulgaria was scheduled for the first half of the second semi-final.^[23]

The staging of Dara's performance at the contest will be directed by Fredrik Rydman, who has previously done so for a number of entries, most notably Sweden in 2015, Finland in 2023 and Switzerland in 2024.^[24]