BNT the national broadcaster of Bulgaria has revealed the names of the 15 artists taking part in the three-show artist and song selection for Eurovision 2026 that will conclude on February 28.
🇧🇬 BNT reveals 15 acts in its artist selection for Eurovision 2026
BNT the national broadcaster of Bulgaria formally invited acts to participate in its upcoming artist selection for their comeback to the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. PROPHON compiled data on the top 40 most popular Bulgarian artists over the last 8 months and provided this data to BNT. From this information, the broadcaster invited the following acts:
- DARA
- Dara Ekimova
- DIA
- Elizabet
- Fiki
- Innerglow
- Kerana & the Cosmonauts
- Mihaela Marinova
- Mihaela Fileva
- Molets
- MONA
- Preyah
- Roksana
- VALL
- Veniamin
🇧🇬 Artist and song selection to take place across three live shows
Over the next two months, Bulgaria will choose its artist and song to represent the nation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna, Austria this May. This will begin on BNT 1 with two shows on January 14 and January 31 to select the artist and conclude with a song selection for the winning act on February 28. Details for the format of this process are as follows:
Show 1:
All 15 acts perform a song from their own portfolio. The public gets 1 vote each online – the songs voted on by the public will be scored 1-15. A five member jury will score the songs from 1-5. The top 7 from the combined results will advance to Show 2. In the event of a tie for 7th place, then all tied acts will be advanced.
Show 2:
Following the same format as Show 1. All qualified acts perform a song from their own portfolio. The songs voted on by the online public vote will be scored 1-7 (or more in the event of a tie in Show 1). A five member jury will score the songs from 1-5. The act with the highest combined total will represent Bulgaria in Vienna and be advanced to the song selection show.
Show 3:
The winning Bulgarian act from Show 2 will perform three entries written for Eurovision 2026 consideration. A 10-person jury will take it in turns to individually score the songs 1-3 points. This will 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 will be converted to a 3-1 score. The song with the most points wins and will be performed at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 by the winning act.
A 16th participation for Bulgaria
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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