\n\tVIENNA: Bulgaria won the Eurovision Song Contest on Sunday with Dara\u2019s catchy floor-filler \u201cBangaranga\u201d sweeping the 70th edition of the world\u2019s biggest live televised music event and pushing into second place Israel, whose participation had triggered a major boycott.
Bulgaria has missed the last three editions of the glitzy extravaganza but took the crown in Vienna for the first time ever, overtaking Israel at the very end as the points came in, with Romania finishing third.
Pop singer Darina Yotova, known as Dara, was not among the favorites going into Eurovision week but the 27-year-old gained traction following a strong performance in the semifinals, with her highly-choreographed dance routines.
\u201cEverything is possible: Bulgaria just won Eurovision!\u201d Dara told a press conference.
\u201cI really like breaking rules. I\u2019m really good with following my rules \u2014 not anybody else\u2019s.
\u201cWe wanted to give to the audience something new and fresh, something that is not expected.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u2018Magnificent story\u2019<\/p>\n
\tBulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Pekanov on Facebook hailed a \u201cmagnificent story of immense talent, tireless effort, and faith in success, against all criticism.\u201d
Around 10,000 glammed-up fans filled the Wiener Stadthalle arena in the Austrian capital to watch Saturday\u2019s showpiece final of Eurovision, where, as always, the razzmatazz didn\u2019t escape the geopolitics in the background.
Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia staged the biggest political boycott in Eurovision history over Israel\u2019s participation, citing the war in Gaza.
And it looked as though Noam Bettan was going to win the contest for Israel with his song \u201cMichelle\u201d following a big score in the televoting from the public around Europe.
But as Bulgaria\u2019s televote points were revealed, Dara ultimately won by a comfortable margin.
Bulgaria finished with 516 points, ahead of Israel on 343, Romania on 296, Australia on 287, Italy with 281 and Finland on 279.
It was the second year in a row that Israel finished runners-up.
Johannes Pietsch, known as JJ, who won Eurovision 2025 for Austria with his song \u201cWasted Love,\u201d handed over the winner\u2019s trophy to Dara.
JJ had opened Saturday\u2019s musical extravaganza with a nod to Austria\u2019s grand musical history, singing the \u201cQueen of the Night\u201d aria from composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart\u2019s 1791 opera \u201cThe Magic Flute.\u201d
\u201cBangaranga, it\u2019s a feeling that everybody has got in themselves,\u201d Dara said earlier Sunday as the votes were coming in.
\u201cIt\u2019s the moment that you choose to lead through love and not fear, and this is a special energy that I know everybody has got in themselves.\u201d
Fans streaming out of the arena revelled in Dara\u2019s triumph.
\u201cI didn\u2019t like the song at first,… but I saw it, I saw the performance, and I was stunned,\u201d said Katerina, a Eurovision fan from Greece.<\/p>\n
\tFinnish fiddling, Romanian choking<\/p>\n
\tThe bookmakers\u2019 overwhelming favorites going into the final were the Finnish double-act of violinist Linda Lampenius and pop singer Pete Parkkonen, with their song \u201cLiekinheitin,\u201d or \u201cFlamethrower.\u201d
As the song built to a climax, 56-year-old Lampenius was shredding her bow as she worked her way to the very top of the fingerboard.
Romanian singer Alexandra Capitanescu\u2019s switched up the vibe with the 22-year-old\u2019s heavy metal song \u201cChoke Me\u201d triggering controversy in the build-up over its repeated lyric: \u201cI want you to choke me.\u201d
Australia\u2019s Delta Goodrem, who has sold nine million albums, came fourth after wowing the crowds with her song \u201cEclipse,\u201d which was filled with strong moments, ending with her soaring high on a riser coming up out of a glittering piano.
Serbian metallers Lavina had the deepest throat-shredding growl of the night, the Czech Republic\u2019s Daniel Zizka navigated a hall of mirrors, while Lithuania\u2019s silver-painted Lion Ceccah brought an air of brooding mystery.<\/p>\n
\tProtests<\/p>\n
\tSome 166 million viewers watched the contest on television last year when it was hosted in Basel.
Earlier Saturday, hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched past chanting \u201cboycott Eurovision\u201d and carrying banners reading \u201cDon\u2019t celebrate genocide.\u201d
Spanish public broadcaster RTVE \u2014 traditionally one of Eurovision\u2019s major backers \u2014 not only boycotted but refused to screen the show.
As it began, it showed the message: \u201cThe Eurovision Song Contest is a competition, but human rights are not. There is no room for indifference. Peace and justice for Palestine.\u201d
Belgian broadcaster VRT said ahead of the final that it was unlikely to compete in next year\u2019s Eurovision if the European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the event, did not hold a direct vote on Israel\u2019s participation in the contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VIENNA: Bulgaria won the Eurovision Song Contest on Sunday with Dara\u2019s catchy floor-filler \u201cBangaranga\u201d sweeping the 70th edition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-676331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}