Bulgaria first made their debut back in 2005, and since then, it’s fairly safe to say that the nation hasn’t had the best of luck throughout their Eurovision journey. The nation has participated 11 times, and reached the final 3 times, and to be fair to Bulgaria, those three times gave the nation Top 5 positions. Today, however, we’ll be discussing the years 2006 through to 2013. Usually we’d discuss up to 2015 in our Best of the Bunch posts (just to make sure all nations are getting an equal poll!) but Bulgaria did not compete in 2014 or 2015.
Starting with 2006, the year after their debut! Mariana Popova was chosen to represent Bulgaria, and the song she performed on the Eurovision stage was called Let Me Cry. A total of 23 acts were in the semi-final that Mariana was performing in, and unfortunately, Bulgaria finished in 17th place with 36 points.
The following year Bulgaria returned with one of their most iconic acts, Elitsa & Stoyan. The duo performed their electronic folk song titled Water, which was unique enough to captivate audiences, qualifying in 6th position, and then finishing in 5th place in the final, which was their best result so far.
In 2008, Bulgaria hoped to return to the final with another electronic style song titled Dj, Take Me Away which was performed by Deep Zone and Balthazar. The song was a favourite among fans, but unfortunately it just missed out on the final by one placing, finishing in 11th with 56 points.
Bulgaria didn’t fare too well in 2009 either, with a fairly eccentric performance from Krassimir Avramov. The song Illusion combined pop and opera, and the performance featured some interesting, colourful but medieval inspired costumes, including dancers on stilts! It wasn’t enough to get Bulgaria back in the final, finishing in 16th place with 7 points.
The following year, Miro was selected to represent Bulgaria with the song Angel Si Ti. The song was performed in both Bulgarian and English, which was the first time since Elitsa & Stoyan 3 years prior. The pop song didn’t make a lasting impression on audiences, finishing in 15 place in the semi-final with 19 points.
In 2011, fan favourite Poli Genova took to the Eurovision stage for the first time (she returned again in 2016!). Poli performed the song Na Inat in Bulgarian, and despite the fantastic song and stage performance, Bulgaria was just short of reaching the final once again. Poli finished in 12th place in the semi with 48 points.
The next year, Sofi Marinova was chosen to represent Bulgaria with the multicultural inspired song Love Unlimited. The song was mostly in Bulgarian, however Sofi sang different language variations of I Love You through the chorus. Like the previous year, Bulgaria was close to reaching the final, but only just missed out, finishing in 11th with 45 points.
We finish our journey here, in 2013, where the duo who had reached the final for the first and only time for Bulgaria back in 2007 were returning to the Eurovision stage once again. Of course we’re talking about Elitsa & Stoyan, who had an interesting national selection to choose their song, but it resulted in the duo performing Samo Shampioni. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be this time around, as they finished in 12th place with 45 points.
Now we’ve recapped on the songs and performances, now it’s your time for vote for your Best of the Bunch!