Bulgaria's Eurovision history is short, uneven and, until very recently, mostly a story about not qualifying. That it ends with the contest being staged in Burgas is the least likely outcome anyone would have predicted from the first fifteen years of it.
The debut and the wilderness, 2005–2015
Bulgaria entered for the first time in 2005, with the jazz band Kaffe and the song Lorraine. It did not qualify. Nor did most of what followed. Through the second half of the 2000s and into the 2010s the country made the final rarely, and the national broadcaster's enthusiasm tracked the results.
By 2014 and 2015 BNT withdrew altogether, citing a lack of recent success — which was, at least, honest. At that point Bulgaria had reached the Grand Final only twice in nine attempts.
The two near-misses, 2016 and 2017
Then, in the space of two years, Bulgaria became one of the strongest countries in the contest.
2016: Poli Genova, If Love Was a Crime — 4th place. Genova had represented Bulgaria before, in 2011, and had not qualified. Returning five years later she produced the country's best result to date, a bilingual pop song with a hook that half of Europe learned in an evening.
2017: Kristian Kostov, Beautiful Mess — 2nd place. Kostov was seventeen, and Bulgaria came within one country of winning. It remains one of the strongest runner-up performances of the modern era and, for a decade afterwards, the high-water mark.
For a moment Bulgaria looked like an emerging Eurovision power. It was not to last in the way anyone expected.
The decline and the second withdrawal, 2018–2025
2018 brought Equinox with Bones and a mid-table finish. 2020 was cancelled. 2021 saw Victoria with Growing Up Is Getting Old, a delicate, restrained song that finished 11th and was widely admired. 2022 was Intelligent Music Project with Intention, which did not qualify.
Then it stopped. BNT withdrew from 2023, and stayed out of 2024 and 2025 — three consecutive years away, driven by funding and administrative problems at the public broadcaster rather than by any lack of interest in the country. For three springs Bulgaria watched the contest from outside.
2026: the win
Bulgaria returned to the contest in 2026, in Vienna. DARA performed Bangaranga, drew position 12 in the running order of the Grand Final, and won — Bulgaria's first victory in twenty-one years of trying.
The margin is the part that made it historic. 516 points, and a lead of 173 over second place — the largest winning margin in the history of the contest. A country that had been absent for three years, whose broadcaster had withdrawn for lack of money, came back and won by more than anyone ever has.
Hosting: how Burgas got it
Winning meant BNT had to stage the 71st Eurovision Song Contest, and four cities put themselves forward: Burgas, Sofia, Varna and Plovdiv. Bids closed on 3 July 2026.
A joint BNT–EBU working group with international experts assessed venues, technical and production requirements, infrastructure, accommodation, transport and what the EBU called "welcoming capacity". Burgas and Sofia went through to the final stage. On 12 August 2026 Burgas was announced.
The EBU's reasoning was that Burgas offered "a strong overall proposition, combining the venue and technical potential required for the Eurovision Song Contest with accommodation capacity, transport and international connectivity". In plainer terms: a modern arena, a city that already handles a summer season, and an international airport 6.8 km from the venue.
Eurovision Director Martin Green said Burgas "brings something really special to the Eurovision Song Contest". The mayor put it differently, and better: "This is not about one city hosting Eurovision. This is Bulgaria hosting Eurovision."
What happens in May 2027
The 71st contest runs at Arena Burgas — opened on 18 May 2023, up to 15,000 for a concert configuration — with the first semi-final on Tuesday 11 May, the second on Thursday 13 May and the Grand Final on Saturday 15 May 2027, plus six preview shows across the week.
It will be the first Eurovision Song Contest ever held in Bulgaria, and the first held in a Bulgarian city that most of Europe has never heard of. Both of those facts are, from here, quite satisfying.
If you are coming, the rest of this guide is about the practical half of it — tickets, getting here, and where to stay.