Bulgaria In The Eurovision Song Contest
Bulgaria is set to compete in the second half of the semi-final in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest held in Dusseldorf, Germany. This is the seventh time Bulgaria has been a part of the competition since 2005. The song performed representing Bulgaria was selected as part of a national competition broadcast on Bulgarian National Television.
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition involving member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. The contest has an estimated viewership of more than 100 million. Forty-three countries are participating in this year's competition, with 19 finalists left in the competition. This year's contest is taking place at Dusseldorf's Esprit Arena. The final event will take place on May 14. Contest results are part jury and part televotes with votes weighted equally.
Poli Genova of Bulgaria was the top finalist. She sang a song called "Na Inat" (or "Out of Spite") that was selected as a result of the BNT competition. Genova is a 23-year-old singer from Sofia, Bulgaria. Genova has been singing since the age of four. She was the host of the popular TV show "Bon-Bon" in her native Bulgaria. She continues to be involved with the show.
Genova's vocal coach, Rozi Karaslavova, has been working with the star for the past 14 years and is helping her prepare for the second part of the competition. The singer graduated from Ljubomir Pipkov, a national music school in Bulgaria. While there she focused on the clarinet. Genova is going to school to become a film director. She also participated in the National Selection of Eurovision Song Contest in 2005 and 2006 as part of a trio called Melody.
The ten countries in the semi-final qualified for the final. France, Italy and Germany are required to broadcast and vote in the second semi-final on May 12. Spain and United Kingdom must broadcast and vote in the first round of the semi-finals on May 10. Bosnia and Herzegovina have been selected first in the draw, followed by Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and Slovakia rounding out the top five. Bulgaria is tenth in the draw. Poli Genova will perform "Na inat" again.
Bulgaria debuted in the European Song Contest in Kiev in 2005. At the time, Bulgaria was represented in the competition by a jazz-inspired band known as Kaffe. The band performed the song "Lorraine." Bulgaria received 49 points and placed 19th in the semi-final, but failed to qualify to the final round. Popova came in 17th with 36 points in the semi-final, failing to qualify for the final.
Bulgaria qualified for the final for the first time in 2007. Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoulov performed a song called "Water." This was the first time a Bulgarian song qualified for the final round of the competition. Todorova and Yankoulov finished 6th in the semi-final in the 2007 contest with 146 points. The pair performed the song again in the final and finished with 157 points and placed 5th out of 24 performers.
Previously, all countries that placed in the top ten in the final qualified for the final in the contest for the next year. This rule was dropped for the 2008 competition. Currently, only the host country and Big 4 countries qualify for the final for the next contest automatically. As a result of this rule change, Bulgaria had to compete in the semi-final in the 2008 contest held in Serbia.
In the 2008 contest, Bulgaria was represented by a band called Deep Zone & Balthazar. They performed a song called "DJ, Take Me Away." The group received 56 points and placed 11th out of 19 performers. In the 2009 contest held in Russia, Bulgaria was represented by Krassimir Avramov. Avramov performed a song called "Popera." However, the performance failed to qualify for the final and came in 16th out of 18 total participants in the semi-final.
Miroslav Kostadinov represented Bulgaria in the 2010 competition. His song,"Angel si ti," was the first since 2007 to be performed in Bulgarian. However, Bulgaria failed to place in the final again. Kostadinov came in 15th out of 17 competitors. Polly Genova is representing Bulgaria in this year's competition with a performance that will also be sung in Bulgarian.
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