THIS YEAR'S ENTRY

Since entering the Eurovision Song Cointest for the first time in Kyiv in 2005, Bulgaria has yet to qualify from the semi-final. Despite this lack of success, Bulgaria television decided to repeat the same formula as the last couple of years, to select its entry for Helsinki, hoping to make it third time lucky.

Eighteen songs competed in a semi-final that was held on February 3rd and a jury selected nine songs to qualify for the final. For the final, which was staged three weeks later, these nine songs were joined by three songs which were especially commissioned for the selection and performed by more high profile acts.

The Bulgarian final was held on February 24th at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia and the public chose the entry by televoting. In a landslide victory, over half the votes went to the duo of Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankulov and a song which they had written called "Voda" (Water), one of the three especially commissioned entries.

Elitsa Todorova was born in 1977 in the city of Varna. She graduated from musical school, specialising in percussion instruments and folk singing, and later gained her university degree in percussion instruments.

Elitsa is renouned for her unmistakable strong, full-toned and tough voice and she has developed her own style of playing the tarambuka, combining fast rhythms with her unique singing style. Her alliance with Stoyan Yankoulov quickly turned her into one of the biggest names in Belgarian music. In 2004, the duo releasd their successful debut album "Drumboy".

International media has called her "a mysterious and exotic singer with magnetic fascination." She has given concerts in Africa, Canada, Finland, Belguim, Portugal, Austria, Luxemburg, Spain, Russia and has been awarded numerous prizes.

Stoyan Yankoluov is reputedly the best Bulgarian drum player and percussionist. He started playing the piano when he was five. In high-school he specialised in percussions and his university degree was also in percussion, in the Jazz and Rock Department.

He was leader of Big Band of Bulgarian National Radio for seven years. He took part in numerous international projects in Germany, Austria, Finland, Norway, Greece, and Turkey together with people like Bobby McFerrin, Ivo Papazov and Teodosii Spasov. He invented a unique set of percussions= instruments and a Bulgarian folklore drum, which is a cone-type tupan. He has been giving concerts with Elitsa Todorova for five years on the biggest international stages presenting the unique Bulgarian culture, which brought him international popularity and awards.

In spite of Bulgaria's previously poor record at Eurovision, limited promotional activity and a slot at the start of the running order in the semi-final of the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest, this is considerd to be one of the favourites to win in Helsinki. It has topped several internet polls and is one of the songs which the bookmakers consider to be virtually certain to qualify for the final. If and when if qualifies, it may well become the favourite to win the contest.

Despite the fact that the limited lyrics are all sung in Bulgarian, the song now uses its English title of "Water".

Lo, young and careless, riding his pony

Oh Mitra, eeh, oh Mitra

Lo, riding his pony, loving his lass

Oh Mitra, eeh, oh Mitra

 

  BULGARIA @ EUROVISION

First entry:	2005
Number of previous entries:	2
Best result:	17th in the semi (2006)
Worst result:	19th in the semi (2005)
Most votes received from:	Greece (avg. 12 pts)
Most votes given to:	Cyprus (avg. 9 pts)