This year, three countries—Moldova, Romania, and Bulgaria—returned to the 70th Eurovision Song Contest after not competing for one, two, and three years respectively. All three returners made incredible comebacks by landing Top 10 placements, but the country with the longest hiatus made the biggest bang. For the first time ever since their debut in 2005, Bulgaria has won Eurovision! Bulgarian popstar DARA earned a total of 516 points (204 from the jury, 312 from the televote) with her song “Bangaranga,” securing an overwhelming victory with nearly twice as many points as the runner-up. This is the first time since 2017 that a country with 0 previous wins came in first place.
There have been a handful of times when Bulgaria almost tasted victory in the past. They were the predicted winner in 2017 with Kristian Kostov’s “Beautiful Mess,” but they ultimately came second after Portugal (which, ironically, was also Portugal’s first-ever win). In addition, VICTORIA’s “Tears Getting Sober” was one of the favorites to win Eurovision in 2020, but when that contest was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and VICTORIA represented Bulgaria with a new song the following year, she came in 11th place.
However, earning Bulgaria’s best result yet isn’t the only reason DARA’s victory is historic: it was also one of the most unexpected Eurovision wins of the century.
Firstly, the bookmakers placed Bulgaria at a mere 8% chance of winning. These are the lowest odds for an eventual winner ever since Eurovision World started assigning percentages to the odds back in 2018. This record previously belonged to Switzerland in 2023, when Nemo’s “The Code” only had a 15% chance: an entire 7% higher than DARA and “Bangaranga.” This is also only the third time since Eurovision World began covering odds in 2015 that the winner was the third most likely to win rather than the first or second, the other two being Ukraine in 2016 and the aforementioned Switzerland in 2023.
Furthermore, according to My Eurovision Scoreboard, “Bangaranga” is the least popular winner of the 21st century. Bulgaria only ranked 7th in the app’s 2026 community ranking. To put this in perspective, Ukraine in 2022 and Russia in 2008 both ranked 6th, while Portugal in 2017 and Estonia in 2001 ranked 5th and Azerbaijan in 2011 ranked 4th; all remaining 20 winners were in the top 3 of their year’s community ranking.
Now that Bulgaria has graduated from the ranks of countries that have never won the Eurovision Song Contest, that unfortunate title still belongs to 22 countries. Some countries—namely Poland in 1994, Malta in both 2002 and 2005, Iceland in 2009, Australia in 2016, Cyprus in 2018, and Croatia in 2024—almost took home the gold, but earned silver instead, while others only made it to bronze (Romania in 2005, 2010, and now 2026, Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2006, and Moldova in 2017). The remaining 13 countries (Albania, Andorra, Belarus, Armenia, Czechia, Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, San Marino, Slovakia, and Slovenia) have yet to even crack the Top 3.
Five of the above countries with zero wins have chosen not to compete for several years now: Andorra’s last participation was in 2009, Slovakia’s was in 2012, Bosnia & Herzegovina’s was in 2016, Hungary’s was in 2019, and North Macedonia’s was in 2022. Perhaps the successful results of the three countries that returned for 2026 will inspire at least one of these countries to give victory another shot in 2027, even if the odds aren’t in their favor; after all, they weren’t in Bulgaria’s favor this year, either, but the crown is still theirs!
