{"id":149015,"date":"2026-05-17T08:09:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T08:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/?p=149015"},"modified":"2026-05-17T08:43:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T08:43:05","slug":"eurovision-2026-chaos-bulgaria-pulls-a-wait-seriously-while-favorites-crash-and-burn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/17\/eurovision-2026-chaos-bulgaria-pulls-a-wait-seriously-while-favorites-crash-and-burn\/","title":{"rendered":"Eurovision 2026 Chaos: Bulgaria Pulls a “Wait, Seriously?!” While Favorites Crash and Burn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a night full of glitter, -key changes, and -collective gasps, Bulgaria just yeeted its way to an unexpected Eurovision victory, leaving odds- makers, fans , and maybe even the Bulgarian delegation themselves in total shock….<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s re-rewind. The 70th Eurovision Song Contest<\/a> wrapped up in #Vienna with a Grand Finale<\/strong> so un-predictable that even the stage props seemed confused. Going in2 the night , everyone had their money on the usual suspects. Finland? Beloved. France? Elegant. Australia? Always dangerously competent. But did any of them win? Ha. Ha. No.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winner, with a song called “Bangaranga”<\/strong> performed by Dara<\/strong> , was Bulgaria<\/strong>. Yes, …Bulgaria. The same …Bulgaria that was sitting pretty at 14place in the odds<\/strong> just days before the second semi -final. Then something happened. Maybe it was the choreography. Maybe a rogue voting bloc fueled by ouzo and sheer determination. Maybe the song just hit harder than anyone expected. Whatever it was, it worked….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Final Leaderboard (The Accurate One, I Promise)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Forget the chaotic live blog updates. After all the glitter settled and the votes were double-checked (twice), here is how the actual Top –10<\/strong> shook out :<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rank<\/th>Country<\/th>Artist \/ Song<\/th>Points<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
\ud83e\udd47 1<\/strong><\/td>Bulgaria<\/strong><\/td>Dara \u2013 “Bangaranga”<\/td>516<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
\ud83e\udd48 2<\/td>Israel<\/td>Noam Bettan \u2013 “Michelle”<\/td>343<\/td><\/tr>
\ud83e\udd49 3<\/td>Romania<\/td>Alexandra C\u0103pit\u0103nescu \u2013 “Choke Me”<\/td>296<\/td><\/tr>
4<\/td>Australia<\/td>Delta Goodrem \u2013 “Eclipse”<\/td>287<\/td><\/tr>
5<\/td>Italy<\/td>Sal Da Vinci \u2013 “Per Sempre Si”<\/td>281<\/td><\/tr>
6<\/td>Finland<\/td>Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen \u2013 “Liekinheitin”<\/td>279<\/td><\/tr>
7<\/td>Denmark<\/td>S\u00f8ren Torpegaard Lund \u2013 “F\u00f8r Vi G\u00e5r Hjem”<\/td>243<\/td><\/tr>
8<\/td>Moldova<\/td>Satoshi \u2013 “Viva, Moldova!”<\/td>226<\/td><\/tr>
9<\/td>Ukraine<\/td>LEL\u00c9KA \u2013 “Ridnym”<\/td>221<\/td><\/tr>
10<\/td>Greece<\/strong><\/td>Akylas \u2013 “Ferto”<\/strong><\/td>220<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So yes , Bulgaria crushed it with 516 points<\/strong> (their first win ever!), while Finland\u2014the so-called “favorite”\u2014had to settle for 6th. Greece missed 9th place by literally one single point<\/strong>. Ouch….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jury Said “Bulgaria”, The Public Said “Yep” (For Once )<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In a rare moment of Eurovision harmony, the juries and the televote actually agreed on a winner. The juries had already given Bulgaria a commanding lead before the public even chimed in. Where did those 12-pointers come from? Malta, Australia, Denmark, and Lithuania all threw their top marks to Sofia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Poland, France, and Denmark were busy collecting 12s from other countries, but it wasn’t enough to catch the “Bangaranga” train<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greece: Akylas and the “Ferto” That Almost Worked<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Greece sent Akylas<\/strong> with the song “Ferto”<\/strong>, and for a hot minute, things looked promising. During the jury vote, Greece climbed as high as 4th place. The audience in the Wiener Stadthalle gave him a standing ovation. Social media went wild, calling it “Greece’s best entry in years” and declaring him “our winner anyway”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the televote came And gravity reasserted itself <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greece finished 10th overall<\/strong> with a heartbreaking 220 points<\/strong> \u2014 just one single point behind Ukraine in 9th<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cyprus ended up further down the pack with 75 points. No flags were burned. No plate-throwing ensued. A quiet year for the island<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Favorites? Oh, They “Patosan” (That’s Greek for Crashed Hard)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Remember Finland? The beloved favorite? They finished 6th<\/strong> with 279 points. France? Nowhere near the top. Italy, Denmark, all the pre-show darlings? They stumbled like they’d tripped over a loose stage cable<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even Australia, which scored a very respectable 287 points and finished 4th, never really threatened to take the crown. As we eurofans poetically put it: “Australia will NOT win Eurovision.”<\/em> Spoiler: they didn’t…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Most Uncomfortable Moment of the Night (Politics Edition)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos not – so – good – luck Mitsotakis<\/strong> decided to show his support for Akylas by\u2026 thanking the President of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, for his help at Eurovision – Yes, you read that right. A prime minister thanking a political ally for song contest assistance<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result? Greece placed 10th. Germany (Weber’s home country) placed 21st<\/strong>. The crowd’s response, reportedly: “Asto.”<\/em> (That’s Greek for “leave it.”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Final Verdict: Eurovision Still Makes No Sense, and We Love It<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For the first time since 2017, the juries and the public agreed on a winner. And yet, somehow, everything still felt chaotic. The betting odds were wrong. The favorites flopped. A 14th-place dark horse rose from the ashes and took the crown with a whopping 516 points<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bulgaria “raised it” \u2014 as the Greek headline says. And for one glorious, confusing night, Europe sang along to “Bangaranga” like they’d known the words their whole lives<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See you all next year.<\/strong> In Sofia. Probably… maybe in Varna too<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(P.S. Don’t bet on the favorites . You’ve been warned .)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by NIKOLAS VADALOUKAS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a night full of glitter, -key changes, and -collective gasps, Bulgaria just yeeted its way to an unexpected Eurovision victory, leaving odds- makers, fans , and maybe even the Bulgarian delegation themselves in total shock…. Let’s re-rewind. The 70th Eurovision Song Contest wrapped up in #Vienna with a Grand Finale so un-predictable that even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,41],"tags":[13191,13189,13190,3276,12280,3560],"class_list":{"0":"post-149015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-tv","9":"tag-bangaranga","10":"tag-bulgaria","11":"tag-dara","12":"tag-eurovision","13":"tag-vienna","14":"tag-winner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149015"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149020,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149015\/revisions\/149020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}