How, then, did Bulgaria emerge victorious as the winners of Eurovision 2026, securing the Eastern European country’s first-ever win at the contest – and the most comprehensive victory in Eurovision history, with Bulgaria scoring 516 points to runner-up Israel’s 343? A new side-by-side video reveals how Bulgarian entry Dara and her addictive pop track Bangaranga suddenly shot from the middle of the pack to become a surprise Eurovision winner, and the first entrant to place first in both jury and televoting results since 2017. Dara
had performed Bangaranga at Bulgaria’s national finals back at the start of March, with a vastly different costume and staging. The video was uploaded to Eurovision’s YouTube channel and served as fans’ only taste of Dara’s song in the lead-up to the contest. The singer performed the track on stage in a white fur-trimmed minidress, black-clad backup dancers behind her as they danced in formation. The song? Catchy. The performance? Fine … but, as one viewer on X pointed out while sharing the side-by-side video,
it was the sort of ho-hum staging that seemed destined for “18th place” in the competition. In fact, two similarly competent-if-uninspired female pop performances – Cyprus’ Antogoni with Jalla and Sweden’s Felicia with My System – finished at 19th and 20th place this year. But the new-look Bangaranga got its grand public unveiling during last Friday’s second semi-final. It was the same song, and the same singer, but it was like Bulgaria had sent in a whole new entry. Watch them side-by-side below: Dara’s dated
costume and dancers had been given a major upgrade, with an edgier, more avant-garde presentation – also, crucially, one that played largely to the camera (where all those jury and televoters are watching), rather than out to the arena. Shot like a music video live on stage, the performance showed Dara and her dancers – now wearing slightly grotesque masks to distort their faces – performing a spectacularly choreographed dance routine on chairs as they moved in tight formation within a wood-panelled room on stage.
It was a revelation: Bulgaria triumphed in the second semi-final, then romped to victory in Sunday’s grand final before most Eurovision experts had even had time to clock how much her revamped presentation of the song was connecting. Compare this to the run-up to the competition from the favourites to win this year, Finnish duo Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen with their song Liekinheitin. Eurovision’s YouTube channel uploaded the first official performance video for the duo back on March 1. Eleven weeks later, the pair
took to the Eurovision stage and delivered … the exact same performance. Same staging, same costumes, same pyrotechnics. Theirs was still one of the strongest entries this year, but in the end, these Eurovision favourites didn’t even place within the top five. But what happened to Delta? After all, Australia’s A-list entry didn’t perform until Friday’s semi-final either, and she also had a few tricks up her sleeve – namely, that borrowed-from-Beyonce lift that hoisted her to the heavens (well, a sensible seven feet) for
the climax of her anthemic power ballad Eclipse. And we definitely wowed audiences in the semi-final: it was revealed after the contest that Australia had placed third there, behind only Bulgaria and Romania. But I’d argue our element of surprise just wasn’t as great as Bulgaria’s: Delta’s music video for Eclipse, released on March 2, showed her in a golden flowing dress, playing the piano and emoting to the heavens. Months on, and her grand final performance continued in a very similar theme (with, it
must be said, spectacular results). She absolutely nailed her performance, giving us our best placing since 2016 and returning Australia to Eurovision glory after a couple of years of failing to qualify. But in the end, not even Our Delta was a match for an entrant who kept her cards close to her chest until the very last moment.
Eurovision 2026, Bulgaria, Dara, Bangaranga, Israel, 516 points, televoting, jury, semi-final, grand final