Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009

ESC National Year
Year = 2009
Country = BUL
Preselection = Be A Star
Preselection date = Quarter-finals:
October 2–
December 18, 2008
Semi-final:
January 18, 2009
Entrant =
Song =
SF result =
Final result =

Bulgaria and Bulgarian National Television (BNT) have once again decided to produce a special show to pick the Bulgarian entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, but in a different format than last year's EuroBGVision.

Be A Star

The Bulgarian national final will be called "Be A Star" and will consist of nine quarter-finals, a semi-final and a grand final. 45 songs will compete in the quarter-finals which will consist of nine weekly heats with five songs competing each week. After every third show, a fourth show will air as a results show where the votes and winners of the three previous shows are announced. The top song from each of the nine quarter-finals will join nine songs selected by a special jury. The 18 songs in total will compete in the semi-final held on January 18, 2009. At the semi-final, a second jury, different from the original one, will select nine of the eighteen songs to go to the grand final held between. Those songs will be joined by three additional "wildcard" songs chosen by BNT. The final decision, on the night of the final, will be made solely through televoting and SMS text voting.cite web|url=http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/12135|title=Be a star to select 2009 Eurovision entry|last=Floras|first=Stella|date=2008-07-06|publisher="ESCToday"|accessdate=2008-07-26]

All songs submitted for "Be A Star" must be by Bulgarian singers, but the choice of language is up to its writers. The submission deadline for songs was September 19, 2008. 54 songs were sent in to compete in the quarter-finals of Be A Star, but eight were disqualified having already been released before 1 October or not original works.cite web|url=http://esctoday.com/news/read/12327|title=Bulgaria: Be A Star preselection lineup announced|last=Laufer|first=Gil|date=2008-09-26|publisher="ESCToday"|accessdate=2008-09-27] The first quarter-final will take place on October 2, 2008. [cite web|url=http://www.oikotimes.com/v2/index.php?file=articles&id=4121|title=54 songs to Eurovision national selection|last=Costa|first=Nelson |date=2008-09-20|publisher="Oikotimes"|accessdate=2008-09-20] [cite web|url=http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/12308|title=Bulgaria: 54 songs submitted to Be a star|last=Hondal|first=Víctor |date=2008-09-20|publisher="ESCToday"|accessdate=2008-09-20]

On August 21, 2008, it was announced that one of the "wildcard" picks for the final was "popera" artist Krasimir Avramov. [cite web|url=http://www.oikotimes.com/v2/index.php?file=articles&id=3956|title=First name for the Eurovision selection announced|date=2008-08-21|publisher="Oikotimes"|accessdate=2008-09-20]

Quarter-finals

----:Source for participantsEach quarter-final contains three corresponding heats from which nine songs in total will qualify for.

Quarter-final 1

----

Heat 1

The first quarter-final was held on October 2, 2008 and lasted 55 minutes. Five songs were presented, with the jury choosing one song and televoting choosing two more to go on to quarter-final 1; two songs did not make it through. The first artist to perform was Monika Kirovska with her catchy pop-rock song "I Won". She was accompanied by a guitar player who was also a backing singer. The second singer to take the stage was Emil Sokolov with his rock song "Deystvitelnost ili izmama". He wore a shiny silver shirt and played the guitar while singing. Following Sokolov was I Veline with her strong ballad "Ready for Love". The crowd seemed to respond better to her song than the two preceding. The fourth song was "I Promise" performed by the rock band Perfect Stranger which included two singers, a drummer, bass player, guitarist and a keyboard player. The comments by the shows commentators were very positive. The last song of the night was the electro-pop "Neka s pesen" by Venelina Milanova. Milanova was accompanied onstage by two backing singers and two dancers and "rocked the stage with a strong melody and a strong voice."cite web|url=http://esctoday.com/news/read/12342|title=Live: First quarterfinal in Bulgaria|last=Laufer|first=Gil|date=2008-10-02|publisher="ESCToday"|accessdate=2008-10-02] "Be A Star: Quarter-final 1". "Bulgarian National Television" (2008-10-02). Retrieved on 2008-10-02.]

Results

Result of Quarter-final 1

The following table shows the entrants that qualified for Quarter-final 1. They are not shown in any specific order as the draw will be determined at a later date.

Heat 6

Heat 8

emi-final

----The table below shows the participants in the semi-final of "Be A Star". They are listed in no particular order as the draw will be announced once all participants are determined.

At Eurovision

Since Bulgaria is not one of the "Big Four" and is not the host of the 2009 contest, it will have to compete in one of the two semi-finals.

See also

* Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest
* Eurovision Song Contest 2009

References

External links

* [http://www.bnt.bg/eurovision BNT]
* [http://tirydou.free.fr/Finales_nationales/2009/bulgarie.html special Bulgaria 2009]