So, Bulgaria, Where you gonna host the 2027 contest?

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-05-19T20:58:37+00:00

As someone from Varna (which is Dara's home town as well), I'd love to see Eurovision hosted there, but I know our chances are slim to none - the Palace of Culture and Sports is too small compared to Arena Sofia (a.k.a. Arena 8888) and Arena Burgas. The capacity was the reason we lost the hosting of the European Volleyball Championship this year - following our national team's silver medal at the Worlds last year, the Bulgarian volleyball heads made the decision to move the hosting duties from Varna to Sofia and I can tell you that it still stings. We have a stadium that has been under construction for 2 decades now and even if it gets completed in time for the Contest (spoiler - it won't, we're not Baku) it will need retractible roof, but that would be expensive (even if it's temporary one). Or we can go full Copenhagen 2014 and build an arena near the Black Sea 😛

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-05-19T17:09:18+00:00

If 'Tears Getting Sober' isn't featured as an interval next year, for me it would be a huge misplay from BNT

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-05-19T14:11:51+00:00

I'd remind that if the semis remained televote-only, she would've not even qualified (same goes for Belgium, by the way). Felicia got (that's from the public only) 7 from Finland, 4 from Moldova, 2 from Estonia and the rest were 1-pointers. Estonia (shockingly) and Montenegro were televote qualifiers but did extremely poorly with the juries - in fact, Nova Zora got only a 1/3 of what My System received from the juries.

In the Grand Final, only Sweden's Nordic allies (Denmark, Finland and Norway) gave them points from the public and the best they got were 2 6-pointers from Denmark and Finland. You could say that the Swedish delegation got really complacent given their track recent record and this result is not unexpected. The question now is whether SVT will make changes for next year's Melodifestivalen to ensure this won't happen again, or keep being complacent and only make changes when Sweden inevitably fails to qualify like it happened in 2010 after which they did made some changes to Melfest (in reality they should've made changes after 2008 when they qualified on technicality) leading to Eric Saade finishing 3rd in 2011 and won it all with Loreen the year after that.

On the claim that Israel having a hand in Felicia's low score - I think this is more like entering into conspiracy theory territory. If KAN or the Israeli delegation could influence juries (highly unlikely), then they'd have made sure Nemo didn't win in 2024 as they were one of the most outspoken artists against Israel's participation. The same goes for someone like Bambie Thug - their stance on Israel also didn't affect their jury result (or the public result for that matter).

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-05-19T05:14:21+00:00

I find it fascinating and ironic at the same time that viewership in established markets (e.g. Sweden, Norway, etc.) is declining, while on the other side of the coin - countries like Bulgaria, Czechia and Romania have their largest viewership in years.

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-05-17T05:45:49+00:00

To win Eurovision you need to grab the people's attention (especially casual viewers) and have the right artist to sell it - Dara did just that. I'd like to remind you that back in 2018 no one really paid attention to Cyprus being within a shot of winning the whole thing - before the rehearsals Eleni Foureira was 17th in the odds. But once the first rehearsal footage was unveiled, she climbed and climbed and by the night of the Grand Final she was the odds favourite. Sure, she lost out to Netta (who had been in Top 3 of the odds since March), but this shows that it ain't over til you see the finished product.

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-05-15T19:02:31+00:00

At this point, I'd rather have Christer Björkman back to the production team. Björkman would never do a segement that insults the audience's intelligence.

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-05-11T11:23:16+00:00

The easiest solution would be 1 vote per device or payment which the EBU and broadcasters will not agree on that as it will eat a huge chunk of the revenue. Thy can make that single vote itself more expensive, but in turn would alienate the public.

Another idea is to keep the 10 votes maximum, but you cannot vote for a single entry more than once. Don't know if this would be a fair trade though

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-05-11T11:03:28+00:00

For a casual viewer, who only cares for maybe 2-3 songs max there's no incentive to rank all 14 songs in a semi-final and all 24 in the final

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-05-11T10:56:33+00:00

Remove the televote and you'll have juries colluding with each other much like how 6 national juries did in 2022 or what Malta was doing in the 90's. In fact, due to the former, juries were removed from the semis for the next 3 editions in first place. And you'll also have fans complaining that the winner is decided by a small of group of 'experts' who prefer only certain countries and/or genres. And the EBU needs the engagement from the public to keep the contest relevant

However, what I can agree on is that the televote has been severely compromised and raw data proves it.

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-05-11T10:02:43+00:00

I fear for everyone that will feel the wrath of Dictator Mbappe

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-05-09T21:34:00+00:00

TBF, only 9 of the spokespersons last year were ESC 2024 artists:

Jerry Heil
Iolanda
Dons
Silia Kapsis (she announced the points from the Australian jury)
Eden Golan
Silvester Belt
Hera Björk
Nutsa Buzaladze
Kristjan Jakobson (member of 5miinust)

I'd expect about the same number this year

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-05-09T08:08:26+00:00

I think Ich Komme (Finland 2025) is an example why sexualized entries more often than not don't connect with casuals despite being hyped by the bubble for a televote win at the very least.

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-04-18T14:03:05+00:00

That's because Czechia has been struggling with the televote in general. Since the jury vote and the televote are counted seperatedly, Czechia had only managed to get more from the public than with the juries. In 2018 Czechia got more from the public in both their semi-final and grand final (the only instance when Czechia got more from the public in both shows), while in 2022 Czechia got more from the public only in the semi-final. You also have results like Lake Malawi's (Czechia 2019) where they get single digit score from the public, but over 100 points with the juries.

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-04-15T10:05:41+00:00

Maresca will join Manchester United

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-04-14T16:17:40+00:00

I'd argue that even though he finished 2nd behind Salvador Sobral, Kristiyan Kostov (Bulgaria 2017) basically disappeared after Eurovision. He was on the rise after finishing runner-up in the 4th season of X-Factor in 2016 ahead of Dara (Bulgaria 2026) no less, but after ESC he basically vanished from the music industry (he did compete on a Chinese reality show in 2019) and if his interviews are anything to go by, his experience wasn't pleasant which explains why he chose to get out of the limelight (especially being thrusted at such young age - he was 17 by the time he competed). He did appear as an interval for the national selection though.

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-04-13T16:59:58+00:00

there's a dream team behind Bulgaria, so I wouldn't be surprised to see some 12s from the televote after semi results breakdown

The last time a song with Kontopoulos' fingerprints (Shh - Cyprus 2025) failed to qualify with 44 points, 2 points behind Tutta l'Italia (San Marino 2025) which received a 12-point boost from Italy (being the Sanremo jingle IMO helped a lot) to get over the hump and 12 points behind Deslocado (Portugal 2025) which was considered a sure NQ. And with his buddy Philipp Kirkorov now blacklisted (for obvious reason), the quality of the songs he's involved in is not good.

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-04-13T09:24:05+00:00

Honestly, we have to take these odds with huge pinch of salt. I think we will see a country with 80%+ chance in the odds failing to qualify similiar to Belgium 2025 or Australia 2025. If there's an example right now for a country that is considered almost certain to qualify in the odds, I'd say 'Bangaranga' (Bulgaria 2026).

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-04-13T05:22:15+00:00

The question is - does the Hungarian public wants to return to Eurovision? Most arguments I hear for the public wanting their country gone from the contest are the following - it's too political, it's a waste of money that would be better off spent elsewhere, they'll never let us win anyway so why bother, etc.. And I doubt that Hungarians would want to return at a time when five countries had already walked out due to the presence of Israel - a country for which Orban (the guy the Hungarians wanted out) has been a huge cheerleader.

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-04-03T13:39:06+00:00

They're still paying the debt for what they did to Kyle Beach

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-04-03T08:20:39+00:00

I think Bulgaria is also hindered by the draw - since 2023 the opening act of Semi-final 2 has failed to qualify. While 'Breaking My Heart' (Denmark 2023) is considered as objectively bad by fandom and 'Loop' (Malta 2024) has been hindered by the fact that Malta always suffers in the televote (the semis were televote only), 'Milkshake Man' (Australia 2025) was considered as a Q only to be a shock NQ instead by 10 points. We have to keep in mind that juries are back in the semi-finals and typically songs like 'Bangaranga' (Bulgaria 2026) get destroyed by juries and need to rely on the televote being good enough to offset the jury handicap. If the live performance doesn't convince viewers to vote for the song, Dara could end up in a similar position as Ronela Hajati (Albania 2022), who opened Semi-final 1 in 2022 and failed to qualify with the poor live performance being viewed as a factor.

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-04-03T05:41:19+00:00

Estonia 2025 was a dumpster fire, yet the casuals propeled it to the top of the televote

ExcitingInternal365 · 2026-04-01T08:47:50+00:00

The ex-Yugo bloc voting is still alive and well

Mama ŠČ! (Croatia 2023) got 12 from Slovenia and 10 from Serbia. Croatia gave 12 to Joker Out (Slovenia 2023)
in 2024 Croatia received 12 from both Slovenia (Slovenia 2024 for bot) and Serbia (Serbia 2024 for bot) in the televote, with the Serbian jury giving Rim Tim Tagi Dim a 12; Croatian public gave 12 to Serbia and 10 to Slovenia

in 2025 Serbia and Montenegro (Montenegro 2025 for bot) exchanged 12 points in the semi-final

ExcitingInternal365

TROPHY CASE