Bulgaria Surprises and Wins Eurovision Ahead of Israel

Álvaro Soto

Madrid

Bulgaria surprised everyone by winning this Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'Bangaranga', surpassing Israel, Romania, Australia, and ... Italy, which rounded out the top five positions of the competition. Bulgarian singer DARA, a star in her country, was the top voted both by the expert juries and the public televote with an electronic pop song that also incorporates national folklore as its base.

DARA was ahead of Israeli Noam Bettan, who for a few minutes came close to winning the Crystal Microphone, the contest’s prize. Bettan's performance went smoothly, without the booing that in previous editions targeted representatives from this country. Bettan, son of French immigrants, sang competently in Hebrew, French, and English a ballad titled 'Michelle'. However, when the televote results were announced - very positive for them again and thus under suspicion - whistles were heard in the stadium.

The third place went to Romanian Alexandra Capitanescu with 'Choke Me'; fourth to Australian Delta Goodrem, who performed 'Eclipse'; and fifth to Italy, with Sal Da Vinci and his 'Per sempre sì'. In the betting, Bulgaria was among the top ten candidates, but not among the favorites. Finland, which topped the forecasts thanks to the duo of singer Pete Parkkonen and violinist Linda Lampenius, had to settle for the sixth position.

Eurovisión, questioned for the absence of several countries, wanted to nod to nostalgia in its 70th edition, and current singers performed legendary songs from the festival's history like 'Volare', 'Congratulations', 'Waterloo', or 'Euphoria', but nothing could erase the feeling that the party, once again, was not going to be as enjoyable.

Geopolitics marked the musical event, as in the previous two years. Spain (absent for the first time since 1961) and four other countries, Iceland, Slovenia, Netherlands, and Ireland, boycotted the event in protest of Israel's participation, highlighted by the Gaza war. Spain, one of the 'big five' (along with Germany, France, United Kingdom, and Italy, the five public broadcasters that contribute most financially to the festival), continued to exert pressure against Eurovision through public television this Saturday.

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RTVE did not broadcast the festival, which could only be followed in Spain via YouTube, but it did broadcast this message throughout the day on its channels: "Eurovision is a contest, human rights are not. There is no room for indifference. Peace and justice for Gaza."

Also in Vienna, hours before the contest, thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday before the festival to reject Israel's presence. Under the slogan 'No stage for genocide', they lamented that the televised show serves as "propaganda" for the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Furthermore, the president of RTVE, José Pablo López, criticized statements by Eurovision director Martin Green, who opened the door to a possible re-entry of Russia, sanctioned since 2022 for the invasion of Ukraine.

The director of Eurovision opened the door to the re-entry of Russia, a position rejected by Spain

Green indicated in an interview that "the invasion of another country is not a reason for exclusion from Eurovision," statements that López countered on his X account because "they destroy the image of the contest and make Spain's return difficult." "It's time for a new era in Eurovision," López concluded, considering that Green intends, with a possible readmission of Russia, to justify Israel's presence.

"Responsibility and humanity"

On Friday, also on the social network X, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, again defended the Spanish stance of not attending the festival. "This year we will not be in Eurovision, but we do so with the conviction of being on the right side of history. For consistency, responsibility, and humanity," he wrote.

The international conflicts are proving to be a setback for the prestige, and also for the audiences, of Eurovision. This year a total of 35 countries took part in the contest, of which 25 were present on Saturday in the final. The estimated audience of the contest in this edition was 166 million people, according to the organizers' calculations, below the 183 million in 2021, the year before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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