Watch live: A battle of five songs in Bulgarian final

Tonight, the time has come to decide the song for Bulgaria. Bulgarian television has already selected the artist to represent the country in Oslo. The Bulgarian colours will be defended by Miro (Miroslav Kostadinov), being chosen already on the 18th of October 2009.

The Bulgarian final will be a competition between five songs. The show is webcast at Eurovision.tv in ESCTV, starting at 19:30.

In tonight's show, five songs specifically produced for the national final will compete for the honour to represent the country. The five competing songs have been chosen to represent different musical genres. The winner will be elected by the viewers, using televoting.

The following is the running order for the final:

1. Eagle. Composer: Yasen Kozev & Krum Georgiev.
2. Moyat Pogled V Teb. Composer: D2.
3. Twist and Tango. Composer: Thomas Törnholm.
4. Ostani. Composer: Nayden Andreev.
5. Angel Si Ti. Composer: Miroslav Kostadinov.

Three of the songs are performed in Bulgarian and two in English.

Audition for back-up

The Bulgarian songs, as well as the artist, have been promoted continuously during the season. After the first presentation of the songs, Miro announced a call for backing vocalists and dancers to join him in the Eurovision Song Contest quest. On the 16th and 17th of February, the Bulgarian national TV and Miro held the casting, with more than 200 backing vocalists and dancers joining in to enter Miro’s team.

The contestants performed two selected songs each – one in Bulgarian and one in English; one a cappella and the other with backing track. According to Bulgarian TV, Miro was happy with the audition and in the end said that 90% of the competitors were good.

There were also a competition for dancers, where the entrants had to improvise to the music of the five songs competing in the Bulgarian final and had to display the best of their dancing skills in various styles.

Routine from 2007

In the Bulgarian final of 2007, Miro finished as the runner-up with the song Fool For You, as part of the band KariZma. Tonight, he's sure to qualify as number one.

The procedure in Bulgaria is entirely different from the one used for 2009, where a run of quarter-finals and semi-finals eventually led up to Krassimir Avramov representing the country. With his Illusion, Krassimir reached 16th place in the first Semi-Final in Moscow, and did not qualify for the Final. In Oslo, Bulgaria will compete in the second Semi-Final, held on the 27th of May.

Update: Watch the show one more time! You can see the final from Bulgaria over and over again in ESCTV ...