Bulgaria’s search for their next Eurovision entry well and truly begins today, as applications in order to submit an entry to the country’s national broadcaster will open from 08:00 CET.

Earlier this month, the Bulgarian national broadcaster – BNT – confirmed that the country’s entry for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest will be selected internally, following in traditions since Bulgaria’s competition return in 2016.

Music labels and professionals wanted

Similar to last year’s selection process, BNT is once again calling for music labels and professional teams to submit and partake in the forthcoming internal selection process for Eurovision 2018.

One new feature appears in this year’s selection process called the “fast track”, meaning that composers can now submit a demo song which will then be offered to interested producers.

Speaking of their upcoming selection project, Bulgaria’s Head of Delegation, Joana Levieva-Sawyer, revealed:

Once again we are looking for a charismatic artist, captivating song and effective stage concepts. We would like to be working together with the best professionals, so that we prove once again that Bulgaria is worthy part of the music landscape in Europe. With this kind of approach we have very good achievements in the last two years – the second place by Kristian Kostov and the fourth one by Poli Genova.

As well as this, BNT is looking for 3 key points from every entrant: Team spirit, talent for music and a message.

Labels and teams wishing to submit an entry for the upcoming European competition should put forward a concept to the Bulgarian broadcaster, with details including the performer, song and stage concept, as well as a draft budget with expenses that the team is willing to cover.

All submissions will be assessed and evaluated by a panel filled with both national and international members, also including producers at BNT.

Requirements

As with last year, BNT has listed all of the requirements they are looking for in regards to their upcoming project, including requirements for bidding producers, songs, performers and stage concepts.

• Producers wanting to submit an entry for Bulgaria’s Eurovision 2018 bid must have produced at least 3 projects within the past 2 years with a certain level of publicity, be registered and licensed in PROFON and have experience in artist and music management.
• As well as complying with the basic Eurovision rules, song submissions must have partial Bulgarian involvement within the production team.
• Moving on to performer requirements, artists wishing to apply must be a Bulgarian citizen and have past stage and live performance experience.

Further details regarding the Bulgarian requirements can be found via the official BG Song website.

The deadline to submit entries for the Bulgarian project is the 20 December.

The Bulgarian return

Following a 2 year break, Bulgaria made their grand Eurovision return in 2016 and opted for an internal selection.

Returning artist Poli Genova was selected by BNT to compete in the host city of Stockholm, performing at the competition with her song If love was a crime. 307 points later and Bulgaria received their then-best result of the contest, finishing in 4th place.

Their results record was then broken once again in 2017, in which Kristian Kostov was selected to represent Bulgaria with his song Beautiful mess.

The Bulgarian star almost brought home the victory in the competition in Kyiv, receiving a total of 615 points and placing in 2nd position.

Climbing the scoreboard year-on-year, could 2018 be the year that Bulgaria brings home the Eurovision trophy?