Bulgaria to Make Its Second Appearance at Eurovision Final on Saturday

Poli Genova representing Bulgaria performs during rehearsals for the Grand Final of the 61st annual Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, 13 May 2016. Photo: EPA

Bulgarian singer Poli Genova will perform her song “If Love Was a Crime” at the final of this year's edition of the Eurovision Song Contest which will take place in Stockholm on Saturday evening.

Thanks to Genova, who also represented the country in 2011, Bulgaria will make its second appearance at an Eurovision final.

Since its debut performance in 2005, Bulgaria has reached the final only once in 2007 when Stoyan Yankoulov and Elitsa Todorova recorded the country's best performance so far by finishing fifth in the final standing.

This year Bulgaria returned to the contest after not participating in its last two editions.

Genova together with the representatives of Latvia, Georgia, Australia, Ukraine, Serbia, Poland, Israel, Lithuania and Belgium were the ten artists qualifying from the second semifinal held on Thursday.

Another ten countries qualified from the first semifinal held on Tuesday, namely Azerbaijan, Russia, the Netherlands, Hungary, Croatia, Austria, Armenia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus and Malta.

At the final, the twenty countries proceeding from the two semifinals will be joined by the Big Five – France, Germany, the UK, Spain and Italy, which qualify automatically as the biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

Sweden, which claimed the right to host the 61^st edition of Eurovision after Mans Zelmerlow won last year's contest, also qualified automatically for the final.

Genova will be the eighth artist to perform in the final which will take place at the Ericsson Globe in the Swedish capital.

The concert begins at 22 o'clock (EET) and will be broadcasted live on the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) and its HD channel as well as on the website of Eurovision (eurovision.tv) and its YouTube channel.

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