BNT, the Bulgarian national broadcaster has informed esctoday.com that they have decided to replace Kismet with Samo Shampioni. Hence Elitsa and Stoyan will represent Bulgaria at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest with Samo Shampioni.

On 3 March Bulgaria selected their 2013 Eurovision entry via a televised song selection show. Both Samo Shampioni and Kismet tied and Kismet qualifed for the Eurovision Song Contest as it won the public televoting (the public vote would be decisive in case of a tie).Samo Shampioni won the jury vote whilst Kismet won the public televoting.

Samo Shampioni- Elitsa- Stoyan

By means of internal selection the Bulgarian National Television selected Elitsa Todorova and StoyanYankulov-Stundzhi to represent Bulgaria at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013. The musicians accepted the invitation and confirmed their participation.

The selection was made by an internal committee of the Bulgarian National Television according to the approved regulations. The producers and experts reviewed and discussed many different musicians.The crucial factor for their decision was that Elitsa and Stundzhi are the most successful representatives that Bulgaria has had and that they have already won the vote of the general public in 2007. Sending musicians with previous experience at the Eurovision Song Contest is a popular practice and in recent years it has been used by other countries as well: Serbia with Zeljko Joksimovic, Germany with Lena, Greece with Sakis Rouvas, Ireland with Jedward. This year 9 more countries shall select their representative by means of internal selection: Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Armenia, Great Britain, France, Georgia,Netherlands, Spain, Belgium and Montenegro.

After the end of the contest last year the Bulgarian National Television, together with the independent website eurovision-bg.com and OGAE Bulgaria,held an unofficial survey among the fans of Bulgaria’ participation at the Eurovision Song Contest in 26 countries. The survey indicated several characteristics of a successful song: a dynamic song with ethnic elements is the most liked, with a combination of lyrics in Bulgarian and English ;the most important elements selected were the following – the song as a composition (music), the choreography and the singing part.

For the initial selection Elitsa and Stundzhi had the opportunity to offer up to 5 (five) songs which comply with the rules of the contest. The committee of the Bulgarian National Television  listened to the songs and selected 3 (three) of them. The three shortlisted songs were officially announced and shown live on the “Nedelya х 3” programme on February 17 2013. The order in which the songs were performed was determined through a draw. Videos of the songs were broadcast repeatedly over a fortnight on BNT and on radio stations that are media partners of BNT. The selected songs were performed once more on a BNT television broadcast on March 3 2013, when viewers and a special jury  evaluated the songs. During the live broadcast, viewers had the opportunity to vote by sending an SMS to telephone numbers that will be announced in advance – one for each song, from a single phone number.

The five-member jury was identical to the composition of the jury for the voting during the semi-finals and the final in the international phase of the contest and is determined by the Director General of BNT, in accordance with the international requirements specified in the regulations. The song that gets the largest number of points from the aggregate vote will be ranked first, with the vote of the viewers and that of the jury having identical weight.

Elitsa Todorova shares her thoughts on the Eurovision Song Contest: Come to Bulgaria! I would like to thank Bulgarian National Television for the invitation and for believing in us. It is an honour for us to show the hard work we have done, our music and ideas at this prestigious European contest. This is an excellent platform for us to work for the positive image of our country and to show the unity and hospitality of Bulgarians as a people who have an ancient culture, as well as our identity as a nation. I would like to thank our fans for their love and support. We will do our best to represent Bulgaria with dignity and to be remembered as warriors of our time with free spirits and extraordinary zest and ambition. Bulgarian music and our love of our roots and our folklore is the key to our success.

Of taking part in this year’s contest, Stoyan Yankulov says: After our participation in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007 I expected that sooner or later we will be invited again and so I was not surprised that Bulgarian National Television invited us to represent our country. I would like to thank everybody for the interest in us, and I hope that we will represent Bulgaria with dignity. It is not a question of my happiness about us again taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest, this is a great responsibility for us. I cannot guarantee that we will win but we will do our best. I am hoping that everyone who believed that we should have won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007 will once again back us.