Bulgaria participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden. The Bulgarian entry was selected through a combination of an internal selection to select the artist and a national final to select the song, organised by the Bulgarian broadcaster Bulgarian National Television. After a copyright issue with winning song of the national final, "Kismet", the song was replaced with the runner-up. Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankulovrepresented Bulgaria with the song "Samo shampioni", which failed to qualify from the second semi-final of the competition, placing 12th and scoring 45 points.
Before Eurovision
Internal selection
On 26 September 2012, BNT announced its intention to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 by issuing a statement that the television company was in the process of determining the structure for their entry selection. On 31 January 2013, BNT announced that it would hold an internal selection where a committee, including producers from BNT, would select the artist that will eventually represent Bulgaria. Once the committee made their decision, the selected artist was required to submit five songs, of which only three were selected by the committee for the national final. On 10 February, Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankulov were announced as the internally selected artists. Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankulov previously represented Bulgaria at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 where they qualified from the semifinal and achieved 5th place in the final with 157 points.
National final
The national final to select Bulgaria's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest took place on 3 March 2013, hosted by Dragomir Draganov. Elitsa and Stoyan presented their three candidate songs to the public on 17 February in the showNedelya x 3. After the presentation, BNT broadcast and aired the songs on their television and radio mediums for a two-week period. On 3 March, the songs were performed live followed by a telephone/SMS vote and a five-member jury vote which determined the results. After a tie between "Samo shampioni" and "Kismet", the televoting results took precedence which resulted in "Kismet" being selected as the winning song. The jury panel consisted of Maria Ganeva, Margarita Hranova, Yasen Kozev, Nikolai Yanchovichin and Georgi Andreev.
Song change
On 11 March 2013, BNT announced that the song "Kismet" had been replaced with the runner-up of the national final, "Samo shampioni". BNT cited that it could not secure the copyrights for the song from Jonatan Tesei, one of the apparent authors of the song that BNT was misinformed about. The broadcaster's possession of copyrights for the entry are required under the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest.
At Eurovision
Bulgaria was allocated to compete in the second semi-final on 16 May for a place in the final on 18 May. In the second semifinal, the producers of the show decided that Bulgaria would perform 7th, following Malta and preceding Iceland. The Bulgarian performance focused on Todorova and Yankulov playing drums and joined on stage by a bagpipe player wearing a Western Bulgarian traditional feathered mask, and three backing vocalists dressed in folk costumes. Bulgaria failed to qualify from the second semi-final of the competition, placing 12th and scoring 45 points.
