They shocked the Eurovision world when they withdrew last year. The national broadcaster of Bulgaria (BNT) has issued a statement on the progress on their decision on whether to return to the contest in 2020. The contest is expected to take place in either Rotterdam or Maastricht in the Netherlands after their win earlier this May in Tel Aviv, Israel.
On the 8th August 2019, the Bulgarian broadcaster responsible for the participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, BNT issued a statement regarding their status on twitter. In the meantime, they further confirmed that they would not be taking part in Junior Eurovision this year in Poland.
Here is what they have to say.
The Story behind the Bulgarian withdrawal in 2019.
When we broke the news on Bulgaria’s withdrawal lat year, it sent shock waves across the Eurovision sphere. What started off as an innocuous lay off of all the major staff at BNT including their head of press and delegation snowballed in the country crashing out of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. Citing that the fees of participation are too high to warrant taking part Even though the country had already confirmed their ticket for Tel-Aviv earlier in the Eurovision cycle.
We then subsequently later reported that the broadcaster was “bankrupted” due to a debt of 50 million Lev, this is about 25 million Euros. The reasoning given for this large sum of debt is summarised as follows.
- Increased costs for foreign productions
- Buying more rights to sporting events
- Increasing the salaries of employees at BNT
- Purchasing major film packages and programmes
Bulgaria at the Eurovision Song Contest
Debuting in 2005 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Bulgaria sent Kaffe with the song “Lorraine“. This was actually Bulgaria’s worst ever result with 49 points, finishing in Nineteenth-Place. The Black Sea nation only competed Twelve times. They only qualified four times.
Their first came in 2007 in Helsinki, Finland. BNT sent Elitsa & Stoyan with “Water“. They finished in Fifth-Place with 157 points. They needed to wait another nine years to qualify again. After a two year lay off, Bulgaria returned with returning artist Poli Genova with the song “If Love Was A Crime“. She finished in Fourth-Place with 307 points. She is now a huge fan favourite.
Bulgaria only then bettered themselves 12 months later finishing as Runners-Up with “Beautiful Mess” sung by Kristian Kostov. He earned a massive 615 points. But that wasn’t even close to Portugal’s run away winner in 2017. Scoring 403 points in their Semi-Final, Bulgaria holds the record for the highest ever score in a Semi-Final.
In Lisbon, Bulgaria opted for “Bones” with the group Equinox constructed by American and Bulgarian artists. They fell slightly short of recent performances with a Fourteenth-Place position with 166 points.
Do you hope that BNT and Bulgaria return to Eurovision? Sound off in the comments below or get in touch with us @escxtra on all social media platforms.
