Bangaranga

"Bangaranga" was written and composed by Darina "Dara" Yotova and Anne Judith Wik together with Monoir^[7] and Dīmītrīs "Starchyld X" Kontopoulos, the two who handled the production.^[5] "Bangaranga" is partially inspired by the Bulgarian practice of Kukeri.^[8] The song's title is in Jamaican Patois and has been translated as "a joyful kind of disorder",^[4] "uproar",^[9] or "mischief".^[2] Dara said the lyrics were written to help her overcome anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, after being diagnosed with it in 2025.^[9]

The music video for "Bangaranga", directed by the label K2ID Productions, was made available on 18 March 2026 through the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel.^[10]

To promote "Bangaranga" before the Eurovision Song Contest 2026, Dara participated in various Eurovision pre-parties. She performed at the Nordic Eurovision Party 2026 held at Rockefeller in Oslo, Norway on 21 March 2026.^[11] Additionally, she also performed at the Eurovision Pre-Party Bucharest 2026 held at Arenele Romane [ro] on 18 April 2026.^[12]

Neil McCormick of The Telegraph praised the song's catchiness.^[2] Jon O'Brien of Vulture ranked "Bangaranga" seventh out of all Eurovision 2026 songs, calling it a "solid return" for Bulgaria.^[17] Meanwhile, NPR's Glen Weldon placed the song at number five on his top-ten list,^[18] and Ed Potton of The Times placed it first on his ranking of the 25 finalists.^[15] Additionally, it was included in the unranked lists of top-ten Eurovision 2026 songs by Robert van Gijssel and Els de Grefte of de Volkskrant as well as Maria Sherman of the Associated Press.^[19][20]

The refrain was compared to the song "A Little Bit Alexis" from Schitt's Creek,^[17][18] while its verses were compared to "Uninvited" by Alanis Morissette.^[17] Mark Savage of the BBC called the song "brilliantly unhinged and full of sass" as well as "totally lacking in substance".^[21]

National selection

After qualifying to the second show,^[22] Dara was selected as the winning artist by the combination of votes awarded by the public and jury.^[23] On 28 February, for the song selection, she performed three candidate songs, among the three "Bangaranga" ended up first in both the jury vote and public vote.^[24] Dara had also stated that she had been considering withdrawing from competing at Eurovision due to the negative comments following her win and speculation that the Artist Final was rigged.^[25]

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 took place at Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria, and consisted of two semi-finals that were held on the respective dates of 12 and 14 May and the final on 16 May 2026. During the allocation draw held on 12 January 2026, Bulgaria was drawn to compete in the second semi-final, competing in the first half of the show.^[26] Dara was later drawn to open the semi-final.^[27] Dara's performance was choreographed by Fredrik Rydman and Keisha von Arnold [sv], and she was backed by dancers Iker Cederblom Herrera, Ellinea Siambalis, Lisa Högström and Mateo Cordova Pomo.^[28] She qualified to the grand final, having won the second semi-final with 278 points.^[29]

In the final, Dara won with 516 points, winning both the jury and public votes, which was Bulgaria's first win in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest.^[30][31]