Bulgaria won the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna on Saturday after a nail-biting finish in which it triumphed at the last second over Israel, whose participation in the contest has been a source of strife for the competition’s organizers and many fans.
The victory was a shock, given that Bulgaria’s entry, “Bangaranga,” performed by the singer Dara, did not feature among the pre-show favorites. But when the results of a public vote were added to scores awarded by national juries, Dara catapulted past Israel’s entrant, Noam Bettan, beating him by a wide margin.
It was a first Eurovision victory for Bulgaria, which debuted at the competition in 2005 and sat out the last three editions, citing high costs.
The surprise win rounded off a troubled edition of the high-camp singing contest, whose run-up was overshadowed by protests over Israel’s involvement. Five nations, including some Eurovision stalwarts, boycotted the event because of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
Those countries, including Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain, also voiced concern that the Israeli government had previously spent heavily on YouTube ads seeking votes for Israeli participants and had mounted a social media campaign. The government’s actions did not break Eurovision’s rules, but upended conventions in an event that bills itself as apolitical.
Despite the furor, fans seemed focused on the music and the onstage antics rather than politics once the competition began on Saturday night at the 16,000-capacity Wiener Stadthalle arena. The four-hour spectacle featured the usual mix of pyrotechnics and outré outfits, including a Finnish violinist in thigh-high boots and a Lithuanian singer in silver body paint.
Dara was less kookily dressed, but her winning song had its own sense of spectacle. Little-known outside her home nation before Eurovision, she is a star in Bulgaria who started out participating in the country’s version of “The X Factor” talent show 10 years ago. Since releasing her debut single in 2016, Dara, whose real name is Darina Nikolaeva Yotova, has recorded two albums and has been a coach on Bulgaria’s version of another talent show, “The Voice.”
Throughout this week, when Eurovision semifinals were held in Vienna, reporters repeatedly asked Dara about the meaning of the word “bangaranga.” She posted an explanation on Instagram, defining it as “your higher self stepping forward” and noting that it was “inspired by kukeri — ancient Bulgarian ritual performers who scare away evil.”
She told one interviewer that “bangaranga” could mean anything at all: If “you don’t know what to say, just use ‘bangaranga,’” she said.
Despite Bulgaria’s victory, this year’s Eurovision is likely to be remembered mainly for the tension around Israel’s participation. The five boycotting nations, which also included Iceland and Slovenia, had called for a vote last year by Eurovision’s member broadcasters on whether to bar Israel from the event. Instead, Eurovision announced rule changes that limited how artists can promote their songs before the final and lowered the maximum number of votes each viewer could cast from 20 to 10.
Eurovision’s director, Martin Green, said the rule changes addressed the perception that Israel was having an unfair influence on the contest’s results, rather than any actual problem.
But questions around Israel’s participation in Eurovision look set to continue. On Saturday, a spokeswoman for the Belgium’s broadcaster VRT, said it wanted a vote among Eurovision’s members on the rules around which countries participate in the competition and “a clear statement against war and violence.”
“Today,” she added, “the chances are slim that VRT will send an artist next year.”
