Super Saturday: Bulgaria is getting there

22 February 2008 at 13:25 CET

Bulgaria conducted one of the most complicated modes of selection of an entry to the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest - a project called EuroBGvision. In October, it all started with weekly preliminary heats, which took place until the end of December. Three heats were always followed by a voting show, where three finalists were chosen by televoting. After that, a semi-final was held on 26th January with 18 participating acts - the nine picked by the public in the preceding voting shows, joined by nine additional songs picked by an expert jury. Out of these, nine qualified for the final on February 23rd, where they will be joined by three wildcard entries, selected and produced by BNT. Last year, one of the wildcard entries was picked to represent Bulgaria - it will be exciting to see how the public decides this time.

Stars and newcomers

The numerous preliminary heats gave many singers who are still quite new to the world of show-biz the possibility to present their skills to a wider television audience. But of course they are not the only ones to take advantage of the Bulgarian national selection for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest: The line-up also features several well-known artists, notably the three wildcard artists: Dessy Dobreva is popular not only in Bulgaria, but also in the United States, where she tours regularly. Georgi Hristov is joined by a veteran of the Italian Sanremo Festival, Gianni Fiorellino. Together they will perform a song in Italian language. The third wildcard was given to Nevena Tsoneva, the winner of the first edition of Music Idol, the Bulgarian version of Pop Idol. She will sing a dramatic ballad in Bulgarian.

The participants

This is the order of appearance of the twelve entries in Saturday's final:

Simona Sivanio - Obeshtai Mi
Nikolai Manolov - Po-dobre
Dani Milev - Svetlinata i Mraka
Georgi Hristov & Gianni Fiorellino - Sogno
Nevena - Ne Izchezvai
Ivailo Kolev - Should've Been The One
Te & Preslava Peicheva - Tazi Vecher
Ivan & Stani - You Are Magic
Dessy Dobreva - StronG
Deep Zone & Balthazar - DJ, Take Me Away
Vlado & Svetlio - Tired Soul
Generation - Running Scared

The final round of EuroBGvision will start on 23rd February at 19:45 CET. It will be broadcast live from the National Palace of Culture in Sofia on the First Channel of BNT as well as on its satellite channel, TV Bulgaria. The winner will be chosen by televoting and SMS voting. Apart from the participating acts, the public will also get to see the winner of the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest, Ruslana. You can watch the show through the webstream of the event.

Bulgaria will compete in the Second Semi-Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest on the 22nd of May.