Bulgaria is set to be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026, which will be held in Vienna, Austria, returning after a three-year absence. The Bulgarian participating broadcaster, Bulgarian National Television (BNT), is organising Natsionalnata selektsiya in order to select its entry for the contest.
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 Bŭlgarskata pesen v „Evroviziya” between 2005 and 2013 (used only to select the song in 2010 and 2013, with the artists internally selected), as well as full internal selections between 2016 and 2018, in 2021 and 2022.[2] Bulgaria did not participate in the contest in 2014, 2015, 2019, and between 2023 and 2025; its most recent absence was originally motivated by financial constraints.[3] On 31 October 2025, BNT announced it would return to the contest in 2026.[4] The following day, Fakti.bg[bg] reported that the broadcaster would have organized a national final to select its entry for the contest;[5] the organization of a national final was confirmed on 18 November 2025, but it was not specified whether it would concern only the artist or both the artist and the song.[6]
Before Eurovision
Natsionalnata selektsiya
Natsionalnata selektsiya (Националната селекция) is the national final format developed by BNT in order to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. The event will take place at BNT Studio 1 in Sofia, with two dates set for 31 January and 28 February 2026, to determine the artist and song respectively.[6] All shows, which will be broadcast on BNT 1 as well as online via the broadcaster's website bnt.bg, is set to be hosted by Georgi Lyubenov[bg] and Boryana Gramatikova[bg], with Vladimira Ilieva serving as backstage host.[7][8]
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 is the song selection, which will take place on 28 February 2026 and will feature the winning artist performing three candidate songs. The winning song will be selected via the 50/50 combination of votes from a public vote and a ten-member expert jury. Each juror will award a score from 1 (lowest) to 3 (highest) to each song, and a set of points from 1 to 3 will be distributed based on ranking of the combined scores. The public vote will award an additional set of points from 1 to 3, and the song with the highest number of combined points will be declared the winner. Viewers were able to cast a vote via BNT's website during all shows.[9][10]
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.[6] The 15 competing acts were selected by a panel consisting of representatives of BNT and Prophon, and announced on 30 December 2025.[10]
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.[11] The jury consisted of Milen Mitev[bg], Vasil Petrov[bg], Toni Dimitrova[bg], Rushi Vidinliev[bg] and Petar Dundakov in the first show, and Nina Nikolina[bg], Lubo Kirov, Bogdana Karadocheva, Krisko and Victoria Chalkitis[el] in the second show.[12][13]
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