The final of the 70th Eurovision Song Contest took place in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Bulgaria won the competition, with singer Dara (Darina Yotova) taking first place with the song “Bangaranga”.
Some of Dara’s music videos had previously gained several million views on YouTube. The 27-year-old singer also served as a mentor to musicians on the television project The Voice of Bulgaria in 2021 and 2022. Her latest album, ADHDARA, was released in September 2025.
According to Radio Bulgaria, the word “Bangaranga” comes from Jamaican slang, where it means “party,” “chaos,” “noise”. In the Bulgarian version, however, the word takes on a deeper meaning.
“It is the moment when you decide to be brave and be yourself.”
After the jury vote, Bulgaria had 204 points, and then added 312 points from viewers. That allowed it to overtake Israeli singer Noam Bettan, who ultimately finished in second place with the song “Michelle”. Third place went to Romania’s Alexandra Căpitănescu with Choke Me. Ukrainian singer Leleka finished ninth with the song Ridnym.
This was Bulgaria’s first victory in the history of the contest. The country joined Eurovision in 2005, when the event was held in Kyiv, and missed the competition several times for financial reasons. Bookmakers had initially predicted victory for the Finnish duo of violinist Linda Lampenius and vocalist Pete Parkkonen with the song Liekinheitin. Australia had been expected to place second, but ultimately finished fourth.
Anniversary show and voting rules
To mark the anniversary, various performers sang hits from past years during the interval. Among those appearing on stage were Norwegian-Belarusian singer Alexander Rybak and Ukrainian musicians Ruslana and Verka Serduchka (Andriy Danylko). The latter performed Nel blu, dipinto di blu together with the audience, a song by Italian singer Domenico Modugno.
Each participating country awards two sets of points: one from the professional jury and one from television viewers. The jury gives 12, 10, 8, and then from 7 down to 1 point to seven countries in descending order. The United Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium received zero points from viewers.
Participants and boycott
Following two qualifying rounds, the finalists were Denmark, Belgium, Greece, Israel, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Finland, Serbia, Croatia, Sweden, Australia, Albania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Cyprus, Malta, Norway, Romania, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Austria, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and France.
Five participants had already been known in advance: Austria as the winner of last year’s Eurovision, and the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and France as the largest sponsors of the European Broadcasting Union. Russia has been barred from participating for five years because of the continuing war in Ukraine.
This year, Spain, Iceland, Ireland, Slovenia and the Netherlands withdrew from performing at Eurovision because of Israel’s participation. Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands also declined to broadcast the contest, which under EBU rules deprives them of the right to participate next year. At the same time, some other countries, above all Germany, threatened to leave the contest if the organizers excluded Israel.