Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest
has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 12 times since making its debut at the 2005 contest in Kiev. The country's best result is a second-place finish for Kristian Kostov and the song "Beautiful Mess" at the contest also in Kiev.
Bulgaria has failed to qualify for the final in eight out of twelve appearances at the contest, most narrowly in, when Sofi Marinova lost out on the 10th qualifying place from the second semi-final in a tie-break with Norway. However, on three of the four occasions that they have reached the final, they have finished in the top five: placing fifth with Elitsa & Stoyan in, fourth with Poli Genova in and second with Kristian Kostov in. Bulgaria reached the final for the fourth time in 2018, with supergroup Equinox placing 14th.
History
Bulgaria first competed at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005, represented by the jazz-inspired band Kaffe with their song "Lorraine". Receiving only 49 points, they placed 19th in the semi-final and failed to qualify to the final. They were succeeded by Mariana Popova with "Let Me Cry", however she also failed to qualify for the final, coming 17th with 36 points in the semi-final.Bulgaria's first qualification for the final came in 2007 when Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoulov performed the song "Water". This was the first Bulgarian language song to compete in the contest, placing 6th in the semi-final with 146 points. Todorova and Yankulov repeated their song in the final and received 157 points, placing 5th in a field of 24.
In previous years, if a country placed in the top 10 countries in the final they automatically qualified to the final of the next contest. Had this rule remained for the 2008 contest, Bulgaria would have directly qualified for the final. However, a change in rules due to the large intake of countries participating in the contest meant that only five countries, the host country and the Big 4 countries, would automatically qualify to the final. As such, Bulgaria were forced to compete in one of the two semi-finals of the 2008 contest in Serbia.
At the 2008 contest, Bulgaria were represented by Deep Zone & Balthazar with the song "DJ, Take Me Away". They, however, could not repeat Todorova and Yankulov's result and received only 56 points, placing 11th of 19 competing.
Bulgaria competed in the 2009 contest in Russia. Bulgaria was the first country to begin their selection for the fifth Bulgarian entry to Eurovision, with 'Be A Star', the national final, beginning in October 2008.
The winner was Krassimir Avramov with his "Popera" song Illusion. It failed to qualify for the final in Moscow coming 16th out of 18 participants in the first semifinal.
In October 2009, BNT announced that Miroslav Kostadinov would represent Bulgaria at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo, Norway. He sang the song "Angel si ti". It was the first song since 2007 to be sung in Bulgarian. However, for the third consecutive year, Bulgaria's entry failed to qualify for the final, coming 15th out of 17 participants in the semifinal.
In 2011, Bulgaria was represented by Poli Genova, and the country's entry was sung in Bulgarian for the second consecutive year. Her song was called "Na Inat", translated as "For Spite", and missed out on a place for the final after coming 12th in the second semi-final, making 2011 the fourth year in a row that Bulgaria didn't reach the final. In that year she competed with 18 more singers in the final of "EuroBGvision". This was her fourth time in which she took part in the "EuroBGvision" and her first win.
The singer Sofi Marinova represented Bulgaria in the 2012 Eurovision contest in Baku with a song called Love Unlimited. Her song was mainly in Bulgarian but it also contains the phrase 'I Love You' in 12 other languages including Turkish, Greek, Spanish, French and Serbian and others. Bulgaria's entry tied with Norway for 10th place in its semifinal; however, the tie broke in favor of Norway because it received points from more countries, making 2012 the fifth year in a row that Bulgaria didn't proceed and sing in the final.
In 2013, Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov were chosen through an internal selection to represent Bulgaria for a second time, this time in Malmö. Their song, Samo shampioni, placed sixth in the second semifinal's televoting results, but 17th place in the jury's results. The duo placed twelfth, with 45 points, thereby excluding Bulgaria from the final yet again.
Withdrawal
On 22 November 2013, Bulgaria announced that they would not be participating in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 due to financial problems.On 15 September 2014, it was announced that Bulgaria had submitted a preliminary application to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, but one month later it was announced that they would not be returning to the contest. On 31 October 2014, it was announced that Bulgaria's participation was still undecided due to the political situation of the country. The EBU granted an extension and awaited a final decision. On 18 December 2014, BNT confirmed via their official Eurovision Twitter account that they would not take part in the 2015 Contest.
Return and second withdrawal
On 15 September 2015, it was announced that BNT sent a preliminary application in order to compete in the 2016 contest, and the effective participation was further confirmed on 26 November 2015, thus marking the return of the country. Poli Genova represented Bulgaria for the second time Poli performed twelfth at the second semi-final on 12 May 2016, and qualified for the final by finishing in 5th place on 220 points. In the final on 14 May 2016, she performed eighth and placed 4th of 26 with 307 points.In 2017, Kristian Kostov represented Bulgaria with the song "Beautiful Mess", he is the first singer at Eurovision to have been born in the 2000s decade. He placed 1st in the second semifinal, with 403 points, qualifying Bulgaria to the finals for the 3rd time. Kristian Kostov ended up getting the best result to Bulgaria so far, reaching the 2nd place, with 615 points, 143 points away from the winner Salvador Sobral who finished with 758 points.
In 2018 BNT selected Equinox with song Bones. The group performed tenth at the first semi-final and qualified for the final by placed 7th with 177 points. Bulgaria reached the final for the fourth time, finishing 14th with 166 points.
On 10 September 2018, it was announced that Bulgaria had submitted a preliminary application to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, but on 15 October 2018, BNT announced that they would not take part in the contest in Tel Aviv, Israel due to financial difficulties.
Second return
In October 2019, BNT announced that Bulgaria would return for the contest in Rotterdam. The country internally selected its entry for the contest, and Victoria was revealed as the artist on 25 November 2019.Contestants
Awards
Marcel Bezençon Awards
| Year | Category | Song | Composer lyrics / music | Performer | Final result | Points | Host city | |
| Composer Award | "Bones" | Borislav Milanov, Trey Campbell, Joacim Persson, Dag Lundberg | Equinox | 14 | 166 |  Lisbon |
Related involvement
Heads of delegation
The public broadcaster of each participating country in the Eurovision Song Contest assigns a head of delegation as the EBU's contact person and the leader of their delegation at the event. The delegation, whose size can greatly vary, includes a head of press, the contestants, songwriters, composers and backing vocalists, among others.| Year | Head of delegation | |
| Joana Levieva-Sawyer |