In the spotlight: VICTORIA
03 May 2020 at 10:10 CESTVICTORIA was one of the first artists announced for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The official announcement of her participation was made at a press conference in Sofia, organized by the Bulgarian public broadcaster Bulgarian National Television (BNT) and her producers from Ligna Studios, last November. Both VICTORIA and her song Tears Getting Sober were selected internally.
The song is very personal to VICTORIA: "It tells a story about overcoming your fears and pain and moving forward. We don’t speak often about the mental health problems our generation faces and this song aims to inspire them and to give them hope.”
Tears Getting Sober was written by VICTORIA herself, alongside Borislav Milanov, Lukas Oscar and Cornelia Wiebols from Symphonix International, during a songwriting camp in Vienna in January.
Who is VICTORIA?
VICTORIA became popular after participating in the 4th season of X Factor Bulgaria. Her latest single, I Wanna Know, gained hundreds of thousands of streams across YouTube and Spotify over the summer. She presented the official video of the song in Sofia and Madrid.
The young singer-songwriter and her team are working on VICTORIA's debut album, expected to be released in autumn 2020. VICTORIA loves animals and has 4 rescue dogs, 2 rabbits and a parrot.
READ MORE: VICTORIA's participant profile
VICTORIA participated in the fourth episode of Eurovision Home Concerts on 24 April. For the show, the public decided that VICTORIA would sing Duncan Laurence's Arcade, next to her Eurovision entry Tears Getting Sober. Check out her songs here:
VICTORIA is one of the 2020 participants coming back when the show returns in 2021. VICTORIA herself confirmed her excitement via an Instagram post in March: "I am so proud to represent Bulgaria at Eurovision 2021! 🇧🇬 I am grateful to @eurovision.bg and @lignagroup for believing in me and giving me a second chance and to@icard.digital.wallet for supporting me! [...] I am looking forward to performing live around Europe soon and to meet you all! Can’t wait to share my new music with you through the spring and the summer and hopefully release my first EP in September!"
In her post, she also sent her congratulations to other 2020 artists who had been announced to return in 2021 at the time of posting.
You can follow VICTORIA on the following social media platforms
LISTEN: Stream Tears Getting Sober and other Eurovision 2020 songs on Spotify
Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest
Bulgaria made its debut at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005. In 2019, the country withdrew from the Contest but planned to return again in 2020. Bulgaria announced its return to Eurovision has a wide endorsement from local NGO’s, creative, media and business organizations. General Director of BNT, Emil Koshlukov, said the return of the country to the contest is an answer to the calls of the young and forward-thinking local audience who identify with the values Eurovision represents. They will make their official return to the stage when the Contest resumes in 2021.
Bulgaria, located in southeastern Europe bordering the Black Sea in the east, has used a mixture of internal selections and national finals for the Eurovision Song Contest. The Bulgaria entry in 2012, Love Unlimited by Sofi Marinova, was sung in Bulgarian but also contains phrases in Arabic, Azerbaijani, English, French, Greek, Italian, Romani, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish and Turkish!
Bulgaria hosted the 2015 edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Sofia and in 2016 Poli Genova took the country to its best-ever placing at that time, fourth in the Grand Final. In 2017, Kristian Kostov beat Poli's record and went on to finish second in the Grand Final with his song Beautiful Mess.
Read More: Bulgaria's country page
In 2018, Bulgaria was represented by EQUINOX in Lisbon. EQUINOX were formed specifically for the Eurovision Song Contest and is composed of five members who had never performed together before this project. The group finished 14th in the Grand Final.