Yesterday it was the big finale of Eurovision Song Contest and it took place in Stockholm, Sweden. And since I´m a Swed and grown up with Eurovision and seen my home country won the contest 4 times, Sweden won the contest 6 times combined, and since many people are connecting the band ABBA with Sweden (the Eurovision was where their career all started) I really wanted to write an article about Eurovision Song Conest with focus on Bulgaria.
Bulgaria through the History of Eurovision Song Contest
The first time Bulgaria participated in Eurovsion Song Contest was at the year 2005. The band, Kaffe, that was competing for Bulgaria was inspired by jazz and the song was “Lorraine”. The contribution failed in the semi-final to make it to the big final. In 2006 Mariana Popova represented Bulgaria with the song “Let Me Cry”, neither this song made it to the final. However, in 2007 things changed when the duet of Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoulov performed the song “Water” and took it to the final where they ended up on 5th place.
The year after that, 2008, Deep Zone & Balthazar with the song “DJ, Take Me Away” ended up on 11th place. In 2009 Bulgaria did not make it to the final with the song “Be A Star”. In the 2010 the contribution was sung in the Bulgarian language again “Angel Si Ti” (Angel You) but did not make it further then the semi-final.
Poli Genova participated for Bulgaria the first time in 2011 with the song “Na Inat” (Out Of Spite), neither this time Bulgaria made it to the final. Sofi Marinova represented Bulgaria in 2012 with “Love Unlimited”. The song with the phrase “I Love You” was sung in 12 different languages but for the 5th year Bulgaria didn’t make it to the final. Elitsa & Stoyan made a come-back in 2013 with the song “Samo Championi” (Only Champions) but neither that year the managed to the final. Bulgaria did not participate in 2014 and 2015, but made a strong came back in 2016 with full power.
Poli Genova & The Big Success for Bulgaria
Genova is born in 1987 and have been in the music businesses since 1995 when she was in the children´s vocals ensemble Bun Bun. Ever since that time Genova has been hosting TV-shows, singing and being a judge for the popular TV-show The X-Factor.
The 19th of February 2016 Bulgarian National Television announced that Poli Genova would once again contribute with a song for Bulgaria at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “If Love Was A Crime”. This time Bulgaria did not just make it to the final but also to the top 5, to be more specific Genova ended up at the 4th place which make it their best contribution ever. Most of the lyrics are in English but there is a phrase in Bulgarian: О, дай ми любовта (Oh give me love)
The song has become known as a modern song that makes you want to dance. Genova´s clothes are also something that has been stuck on peoples minds as futuristic, cyborg with all the reflexes.
Genova tells the Swedish Television that she is very proud, happy and exited to bring the best place so far for Bulgaria’s participation at the Eurovsion Song Contest. Further on she explains its big and important for Bulgaria and its something beautiful. She explains that she wanted to bring Bulgaria back to the Eurovision Song Contest and open up for more Bulgarian artists.
Great success Poli!
Sources for this article:
http://www.svt.se/melodifestivalen/bulgarien-poli-genova-eurovision-song-contest-2016
http://bnr.bg/en/post/100692111/poli-genova-ranks-bulgaria-fourth-at-eurovision-2016
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgaria_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poli_Genova
When in Bulgaria 
What a complete summary! I will share it tomorrow on my Facebook page if you don’t mind.
I am so glad that Poli made it to the 4th place! Let’s hope this helps bringing some more tourists here. 🙂
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Yeas I´m also glad for her and for Bulgaria! I hope this is a beginning of many successful years in the Eurovision Song Contest for Bulgaria. If Bulgaria would win the Eurovision I can ensure you that it would bring lots of tourists to Bulgaria (Stockholm was full of tourists this week) 🙂
Of course you can share it, it just makes me happy 😀
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Hello.I like the the article too much.I’m very proud of Poly’s song and performance.But I want to write something.Iam not a specialis but I think that the sentence ,which Poli sings in Bulgarian-“О,дай ми любовта”,must be translate in English-Give me the love,because for us -give me love -has different meaning.I think so.Thank you very much for the article!🌹
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Hi Sonia! Sorry for such a late answer, I´ve been away on a trip.
Thank you so much! I´m glad that you liked it. Yeas we are all very proud of Poli and her great success. My knowledge in the Bulgarian language is very limited unfortunately so its good when I have expert help that can both correct and teach me. I will change it to “Give me the love”.
I wish you a good day and chestit praznik! 😀
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