Bulgaria
Member station	BNT bTV
National selection events	National Final[show] Internal Selection[show]
Participation summary
Appearances	6
First appearance	2007
Best result	2nd: 2014
Worst result	Last: 2008
External links
Bulgaria’s page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Bulgaria in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016

The participation of Bulgaria in the Junior Eurovision Song Contestfirst began in Rotterdam, Netherlands, at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007. Bulgarian National Television(BNT), a member organisation of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), have been responsible for the selection process of their participants, since their debut in 2007. The first representative to participate for the nation at the 2007 contest was Bon-Bon with the song “Bonbolandiya”, which finished in seventh place out of seventeen participating entries, achieving a score of eighty-six points. There has been four absences from the competition, those being in 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013. Bulgaria’s most recent return to the contest in 2014 proved to be successful, when Krisia, Hasan & Ibrahimrepresented them with the song “Planet of the Children“, achieving one-hundred and forty-seven points and finishing in second place out of sixteen participating countries, the country’s best ever result in a Eurovision competition. They hosted the contest at Arena Armeecin 2015. On 11 June 2016, Lidia Ganeva won the national selection “Decata na Bulgaria sa super”, earning the right to represent Bulgaria at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016, in Valletta, Malta. Ganeva performed the internally selected song “Magical Day (Valsheben den)” at the contest. She received one-hundred and sixty-one points and therefore finished ninth out of seventeen participating countries.

History[edit]

Bulgaria has entered the Junior Eurovision Song Contest six times, first entering in 2007. Bulgaria’s first entry was Bon-Bon with “Bonbolandiya”, which finished 7th at the 2007 contest in Rotterdam. Their second entry was Krestiana Kresteva with “Edna mechta”, which finished 15th and last at the 2008 contest. The Bulgarian broadcaster BNT withdrew from the 2009 contest, and Bulgaria did not compete in the contest in Kiev or at the 2010 edition in Minsk. Bulgaria returned for the 2011 contest in Yerevan, then they took a break from the 2012 and the 2013 contests.

Bulgaria returned for the 2014 edition in Malta, earning their best ever result in a Eurovision competition when Krisia, Hasan & Ibrahimplaced second performing “Planet of the Children“.^[1] Their success helped reinvigorate public interest in the contest. According to Google Trends, Junior Eurovision was the eighth fastest trending event in Bulgaria for 2014, ahead of the Australian Open 2014 and New Year’s 2014.^[2]

On 26 January 2015, it was announced that Bulgaria would host the 2015 edition at the Arena Armeec in Sofia on 21 November.^[3] The 2015 junior contest has been credited by some for providing BNT with the financial support they needed to return to the adult Eurovision in 2016, for their first Eurovision since 2013 – perhaps not coincidentally, their entrant in Stockholm was the Junior Eurovision’s 2015 host, Poli Genova. In June 2016 BNT selected their artist for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Valletta, Lidia Ganeva.

Participation[edit]

Table key

 1st place   2nd place   3rd place   Last place

Broadcasts and voting[edit]

Commentators and spokespersons[edit]

The contests are broadcast online worldwide through the official Junior Eurovision Song Contest website junioreurovision.tv and YouTube. In 2015, the online broadcasts featured commentary in English by junioreurovision.tv editor Luke Fisher and 2011 Bulgarian Junior Eurovision Song Contest entrant Ivan Ivanov.^[4] The Bulgarian broadcaster, BNT, sent their own commentator to each contest in order to provide commentary in the Bulgarian language. Spokespersons were also chosen by the national broadcaster in order to announce the awarding points from Bulgaria. The table below list the details of each commentator and spokesperson since 2007.

Voting history[edit]

The tables below shows Bulgaria’s top-five voting history rankings up until their most recent participation in 2016 and takes into account the new voting system which allows the adult and kids juries each to award a set of points, introduced by the European Broadcasting Union from the 2016 contest onwards.^[5]

Hostings[edit]

Year	Location	Venue	Presenters
2015	Sofia	Arena Armeec	Poli Genova[6]