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Right, so Halloween just got a little bit more interesting, didn’t it? On October 31st, 2025—literally today Bulgaria confirmed it’s coming back to Eurovision in 2026. And not in a “we’re thinking about it” sort of way. No, they’ve actually gone and done it. After three years away, BNT (Bulgarian National Television, for those keeping score at home) announced that Bulgaria will be competing in Vienna come May 2026.
Now, before you get too excited about this, let’s take a moment to appreciate just how bonkers this is. Because Bulgaria and Eurovision have had what you might charitably call a “complicated relationship”—sort of like if your mate keeps saying he’ll go on a diet and then shows up with a kebab!
A Country That Couldn’t Quite Be Bothered
Bulgaria’s Eurovision history reads like a bad relationship status update: “It’s complicated.” They’ve withdrawn—properly withdrawn, mind you—on four separate occasions. 2014-2015, 2019, and then again 2023-2025. That’s not “we’re taking a break to reassess our lives.” That’s “we’re actively choosing to sit this one out, thanks very much.”
Back in October 2022, BNT sent what might be the most dismissive message to OGAE Greece saying: “Bulgaria will not be taking part at Eurovision 2023 and most probably in the future editions as well. After analysis it was decided that this program does not present an interest for the broadcaster any longer.” Ouch. That’s not just a withdrawal—that’s a full-on “we’re not interested anymore, mate.”
The money situation didn’t help, obviously. BNT’s budget had been slashed by 2 million BGN (that’s about £900,000 for those of us who can’t do Cyrillic maths) while their costs had nearly tripled due to global inflation. Add to that the fact that participating countries have to share the overall event costs—which were a cool €5.3 million in 2019—and you can see why BNT started making excuses.
But here’s where it gets properly mental: they didn’t even broadcast Eurovision 2025. Not a single frame. While other non-participating countries still aired the contest for their viewers, Bulgaria basically said “nah, we’re alright.” Bulgarian fans had to stream it online like some sort of Eurovision refugees.
A Brief Moment of Glory (Before It All Went Pear-Shaped)
Not that Bulgaria’s Eurovision story is all doom and gloom. No, they’ve had their moments. Remember 2017? Kristian Kostov? The 17-year-old with “Beautiful Mess” who came second in the Grand Final? That was Bulgaria’s best result, and it was glorious. The country was briefly the flavour of the month across Europe.
Then there was Poli Genova’s “If Love Was a Crime” in 2016, which finished fourth. Elitsa and Stoyan won a bronze medal with “Water” back in 2007. Between 2016 and 2021, Bulgaria actually qualified for the final in every single contest they entered—which is actually pretty impressive when you think about it.
But then 2022 happened. The Intelligent Music Project showed up in Turin with “Intention,” finished 16th out of 17 in Semi-Final One, and that was basically that. And get this—they funded the whole thing themselves because BNT was basically skint.
So What Changed? Did Emil Finally Get His Act Together?
Here’s where it gets interesting. BNT Director General Emil Koshlukov—who’s had a time of it lately, what with all the court stuff and restructuring faff—has apparently decided that Eurovision is “more than a contest – it’s a meeting point for cultures and stories.” Which, fair play, is a nice sentiment. Though we suspect someone finally looked at the balance sheet and went “hang on, maybe we should do this again?”
Eurovision director Martin Green also welcomed Bulgaria back, which is basically Eurovision HQ saying “welcome home to the club, you absolute muppets.”
The thing is, nobody’s really sure what happened between “we’re not interested anymore” in 2022 and “we’re definitely doing this” in 2025. Did someone finally convince the powers that be at BNT? Did they have a board meeting and someone went “right, budgets are better now, let’s give it a go”? Did Emil just wake up on October 30th and think “sod it, Eurovision’s back on the menu”?
We don’t know yet. What we do know is that BNT will be selecting both an artist and a song in the coming months. And honestly, after all that time away, they’ve got a lot to prove.
