On February 23, Bulgaria has selected the song that will represent the country at the 55th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. The Bulgarian National Television has aired directly the finals of the Bulgarian competition for the forthcoming European show. On May 12, the whole of Europe will hold its breath when in Düsseldorf, Germany, all songs of the Old Continent will start competing.

This year Bulgaria will be presented by Polly Genova who will sing in Bulgarian. Her song is entitled Na Inat (which loosely translates in English as In Defiance).In 2011 she competed with 18 more singers in the finals of the "EuroBGvision", which was her fourth time to participate and her first win. Polly Genova was one of the few singers who sang in Bulgarian at the finals. She won the vote of both the professional jury and the audience with her impressive appearance and excellent voice. Her song is a rock/punk piece, with lyrics written by Polly herself and Borislav Mihailov, and produced by the Symphonix label.

You have just heard the Bulgarian entry for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, performed by young Bulgarian female vocalist Polly Genova.
Bulgaria first competed at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005, represented by the jazz-inspired band Kaffe and their song Lorraine, however they failed to qualify for the final. They were succeeded the following year by Mariana Popova with her single Let Me Cry, who came 17th in the semi-final and didn’t make it to the finals as well, but turned into a hit locally.

Bulgaria’s biggest success at Eurovision so far was in 2007 when the Bulgarian entry made it to the finals with the inspirational ethno-sound song of unique percussionist duo Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankulov entitled Voda (Water). This was the first Bulgarian-language song to compete in the contest, and was also the first, and so far the only, Bulgarian song to qualify for the finals. Todorova and Yankulov’s amazing blend between Bulgarian authentic folkore, jazz, ethno and world music was ranked 5th in Europe by more than 300 million viewers.
Let us listen next to Water and Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankulov.

You have just heard the song Water of percussionist duo Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankulov, the most successul Bulgarian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest that reached the 5th place in Finland in 2007.
At the 2008 contest, Bulgaria were represented by Deep Zone & Balthazar with the song DJ Take me Away, a contemporary dance track with electronic sound. They, however, could not repeat Todorova and Yankulov’s success. However, their song turned into a hit in Bulgaria and was on the top of local charts for weeks.
Deep Zone and Balthazar and DJ, Take me Away (audio):

We wind up today’s program with another performance of Polly Genova – her song Every Day. 

Translated by: Rossitsa Petcova