Tonight (28th February 2026), BNT the broadcaster responsible for their Eurovision Song Contest participation held the final show of their Naional Final Natsionalnata Selektsiya 2026 and after a combination of jury votes and televote from the Bulgarian public it was announced that Dara will sing Bangaranga in Vienna.
🇧🇬 How Natsionalnata selektsiya 2026 took place to select Dara
On 31st January 2026 BNT held its artist selection show for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. After topping the polls in both the jury and televote, it was unanimously decided that DARA should represent the nation in Vienna this May. Below are the full results for Show 2:
| PLACEMENT | ARTIST | SONG | JURY | TELEVOTE | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DARA | ‘Thunder’ | 22 | 8 (21,267) | 30 |
| 2 | Mihaela Marinova | ‘Under Pressure’ | 19 | 7 (19,845) | 26 |
| 3 | Mona | ‘Sila’ | 17 | 6 (18,211) | 23 |
| 4 | Kerana and Kosmonavtite | ‘Nyama’ | 18 | 5 (10,104) | 23 |
| 5 | Preyah | ‘Edelweiss’ | 18 | 3 (5,667) | 21 |
| 6 | Molets & The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices | ‘Vyatura’ | 17 | 4 (9,952) | 21 |
| 7 | Innerglow | ‘Znak’ | 16 | 2 (3,743) | 18 |
| 8 | Roksana | ‘Kalimanku Denku’ | 16 | 1 (2,997) | 17 |
Artist and song selection took place across three live shows
Show 1:
All 15 acts performed a song from their own portfolio. The public got 1 vote each online – the songs voted on by the public was scored 1-15. A five member jury scored the songs from 1-5. The top 7 from the combined results advanced to Show 2.
Show 2:
Following the same format as Show 1. All qualified acts performed a song from their own portfolio. The songs voted on by the online public vote was scored 1-7 (or more in the event of a tie in Show 1). A five member jury scored the songs from 1-5. Dara scored the highest combined total and got the ticket to represent Bulgaria in Vienna and was therefore advanced to the song selection show.
Show 3:
The winning Bulgarian act from Show 2 performed three entries written for Eurovision 2026 consideration. A 10-person jury took it in turns to individually score the songs 1-3 points. This converted to 3 points for the most favoured jury song, 2 points to their second favourite and 1 point for the least favoured. Similarly the public votes were converted to a 3-1 score. The song with the most points won and will be performed at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 by Dara in Vienna.
🇧🇬 Bulgaria at the Eurovision Song Contest
Bulgaria returns after a hiatus of three years, and will take part for the 16th time in the Contest, having first participated in 2005, the 50th edition. It participated continuously until 2013, but only qualified once, in 2007 (when they ended up in 5th place). Despite these poor results, two of Bulgaria’s fan-favourite songs come from this era of Bulgarian participation: 2011’s “Na Inat” and 2012’s “Love Unlimited”.
After a hiatus of two years, the country returned in 2016 and reached the fourth place, with the return of Poli Genova and her entry “If Love Was a Crime”. A year later, Bulgaria rose as a favourite alongside Italy and Portugal, and finished 2nd in the Grand Final with Kristian Kostov. Many thought we would see the rise of a new Eurovision powerhouse, which caused some hype for their 2018 participation, a hype that did not translate in the results, with only a 14th place in the final.
After an absence in 2019, Bulgaria returned for three years and withdrew after a 2022 non-qualification.
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