Bulgaria was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "Bangaranga", written by Anne Judith Wik, Cristian Tarcea, Darina Yotova and Dimitris Kontopoulos, and performed by Yotova under her stage name Dara. The Bulgarian participating broadcaster, Bulgarian National Television (BNT), returned to the contest after a three-year hiatus and organised the national final in order to select its entry for the contest.
Bulgaria was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 14 May 2026. Performing during the show in position 1, "Bangaranga" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 16 May. It was later revealed that Bulgaria placed first out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final with 278 points. In the final, Bulgaria performed in position 12 and placed first out of the 25 participating countries, winning the contest with 516 points. This marked Bulgaria's first victory in the contest, with it becoming the twenty-eighth nation to record a win.
Background
Prior to the 2026 contest, Bulgarian National Television (BNT) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Bulgaria fourteen times since its first entry in . Its best result in the contest was second, which it achieved in with the song "Beautiful Mess" performed by Kristian Kostov. To this point, it had achieved another two top five placings at the contest: in when "Water" performed by Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov placed fifth, and in when "If Love Was a Crime" performed by Poli Genova placed fourth. In , Bulgaria failed to qualify for the final with the song "Intention" performed by Intelligent Music Project.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, BNT organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster has used various methods to select its entry in the past, including the national final between and (used only to select the song in and 2013, with the artists internally selected), as well as full internal selections between and , in and . Bulgaria did not participate in the contest in , , , and between and ; its most recent absence was originally motivated by financial constraints. On 31 October 2025, BNT announced it would return to the contest in 2026. The following day, reported that BNT would organise a national final to select its entry for the contest; this was confirmed by the broadcaster on 18 November 2025, but it was not specified whether it would concern only the artist or both the artist and the song.
Before Eurovision
() was the national final format developed by BNT in order to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. The event took place at BNT Studio 1 in Sofia, on the 24 and 31 January, and 28 February 2026, to determine the artist and song respectively. All shows, which was broadcast on BNT 1, as well as online via the broadcaster's website bnt.bg, was hosted by and , with Vladimira Ilieva serving as backstage host.
Format The selection of the Bulgarian Eurovision entry took place over two stages. The first stage was the artist selection, which consisted of two televised shows on 24 and 31 January 2026, and involved 15 competing acts performing their own previous songs. In the first show, all 15 artists competed and eight acts were selected to advance to the second show based on the combination of votes from the public and a five-member expert jury. Each juror awarded a score from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) to each artist, while the public vote awarded a set of points from 1 (lowest) to 15 (highest). Initially, seven artists that had the highest number of points were supposed to advance, but due to a tie between two acts, both were selected to proceed. In the second show, the eight remaining artists were voted upon by the combination of the public vote and five-member expert jury in order to select the winning artist. Each juror awarded a score from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) to each artist, while the public vote awarded a set of points from 1 (lowest) to 8 (highest); the artist that had the highest number of combined points was declared the winner. The second stage was the song selection, which took place on 28 February 2026, which featured the winning artist performing three candidate songs. The winning song was selected via the 50/50 combination of votes from a public vote and a ten-member expert jury. Each juror awarded a score from 1 (lowest) to 3 (highest) to each song, and a set of points from 1 to 3 was distributed based on ranking of the combined scores. The public vote awarded an additional set of points from 1 to 3, and the song with the highest number of combined points was declared the winner. Viewers were able to cast a vote via BNT's website during all shows.
Competing artists On 18 November 2025, BNT signed an agreement with Prophon to jointly select the competing artists for the national final, with acts invited based on data provided by Prophon on the Top 40 ranking of the most played artists on digital platforms in Bulgaria over the preceding eight months. The 15 competing acts were selected by a panel consisting of representatives of BNT and Prophon, and announced on 30 December 2025.
+ participating artists Dara
Dia
Fiki Innerglow
Mihaela Marinova Mihaela Fileva
Preyah
Vall
Artist selection The artist selection stage consisted of two shows that took place on 24 and 31 January 2026. In the first show, eight artists instead of seven qualified to the second show due to a tie between Roksana and Innerglow, following the combination of votes awarded by a public vote and a five-member jury panel. In the second show, Dara was selected as the winning artist by the combination of votes awarded by the public and jury. The jury consisted of , , , and Petar Dundakov in the first show, and , Lubo Kirov, Bogdana Karadocheva, Krisko and in the second show.
In addition to the competing artists, guest performers in the first show were former Bulgarian Eurovision entrantsKristian Kostov (), Victoria Georgieva () and Krisia Todorova ()while guest performers in the second show were , Nevena Tsoneva, Eldar Gasimov (who won Eurovision for alongside Nikki), as well as Alis and Aidan (who would represent and , respectively). +Show 124 January 2026 Artist Song Jury Public vote Total PlaceVotesPoints 1 Kerana and Kosmonavtite "" () 23 5,291 10 33 6 2Elizabet "" () 18 700 1 19 15 3Molec "" () 24 8,603 12 36 3 4 Dara Ekimova "" () 21 3,110 4 25 12 5Dia "" () 18 2,144 3 21 13 6Mihaela Marinova "" () 24 9,973 13 37 2 7Preyah "" () 24 5,557 11 35 4 8 Veniamin "" () 21 3,275 5 26 11 9Vall "" () 19 937 2 21 13 10Fiki "Rise Up" 21 4,050 7 28 9 11Mihaela Fileva "" () 22 3,654 6 28 9 12Mona "" () 19 15,506 15 34 5 13 Roksana "" 23 4,665 8 31 7 14Dara "" () 25 15,477 14 39 1 15Innerglow "Chained in Love" 22 5,003 9 31 7
+Show 231 January 2026 Artist Song Jury Public vote Total PlaceVotesPoints 1 Roksana "" () 16 2,997 1 17 8 2Mona "" () 17 18,211 6 23 3 3Preyah "" () 18 5,677 3 21 5 4Mihaela Marinova "Under Pressure" 19 19,845 7 26 2 5 Molec "" () 17 9,952 4 21 6 6Dara "Thunder" 22 21,267 8 30 1 7Innerglow "" () 16 3,743 2 18 7 8 Kerana and Kosmonavtite "" () 18 10,104 5 23 4
Song selection The song selection show took place on 28 February 2026, where the winning artist, Dara, performed three candidate songs. The winning song, "Bangaranga", was selected by the 50/50 combination of votes awarded by a public vote and a ten-member jury panel. The jury consisted of Milen Mitev, Vasil Petrov, Toni Dimitrova, Rushi Vidinliev, Petar Dundakov, Nina Nikolina, Lubo Kirov, Bogdana Karadocheva, Krisko and Victoria Chalkitis.
In addition to the competing songs, guest performers were Bion, Rob Money, Bon-Bon (which represented ), Deep Zone Project (which represented ), Senhit (who represented , , and ) and Eva Marija (who represented ).
+Song selection28 February 2026 Song Songwriter(s) Jury Public vote Total PlaceVotesPointsVotesPoints 1 "This Is Me" 12 1 1,075 1 2 3 2 "Curse" 18 2 1,422 2 4 2 3 "Bangaranga" 30 3 19,119 3 6 1
At Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 took place at the in Vienna, Austria, and consisted of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 12 and 14 May and the final on 16 May 2026. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) were required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progressed to the final. On 12 January 2026, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country performed in; the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. Bulgaria was scheduled to open the second semi-final, preceding the entry from Azerbaijan.
In Bulgaria, BNT broadcast all shows on BNT 1, with live commentary from Elena Rosberg and Petko Kralev.
Semi-final Keisha von Arnold and Fredrik Rydman created the choreography and directed the staging. Rydman had previously staged several entries, most notably , and . Supporting dancers in the performance were Iker Cederblom Herrera, Ellinea Siambalis, Lisa Högström, and Mateo Cordova Pomo.
Bulgaria was allocated for the second semi-final, and later, was announced to perform in position one during the show, before the performance from Azerbaijan. Dara was joined by Ellinea Afroditi Aina, Iker Cederblom Herrera, Lisa Högström and Mateo Rolando Cordova Pomo as backing dancers for the performance, while Victoria Halkiti provided backing vocals. At the end of the show, the country was announced as a qualifier for the final, marking Bulgaria's first qualification for the final since 2021. It was later revealed that Bulgaria placed first out of the fifteen participating countries in the second semi-final with 278 points. In the jury vote, Bulgaria placed fifth with 94 points, whilst in the televote, Bulgaria placed first with 184 points.
Final Following the semi-final, Bulgaria was drawn to in position 12 of the final, following the entry from Czechia and before the entry from Croatia. Dara took part in dress rehearsals on 15 and 16 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show on 16 May. Bulgaria placed 1st in the final, scoring 516 points; 312 points from the public televoting and 204 points from the juries. This marked Bulgaria's first victory in the Eurovision Song Contest, becoming the twenty-eighth country to win the event. This victory also breaks Alexander Rybak's 2009 record for the biggest point differential between a winner and runner-up in an edition.
Voting