Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. The semi-final allocation draw held for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 on 28 January 2020 was used for the 2021 contest, which Bulgaria was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 20 May 2021, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.^[10]

Once all the competing songs for the 2021 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Bulgaria was set to perform in position 13, following the entry from Portugal and before the entry from Finland.^[11]

The two semi-finals and the final were broadcast in Bulgaria on BNT 1 and BNT 4 with commentary by Elena Rosberg and Georgi Kushvaliev.^[12][13] The Bulgarian spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Bulgarian jury during the final, was Joanna Dragneva who represented Bulgaria at the 2008 contest as the lead singer of Deep Zone.

Victoria took part in technical rehearsals on 11 and 14 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 19 and 20 May. This included the jury show on 19 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.^[14]

The Bulgarian performance featured Victoria performing on a rotating platform in a blue jacket and pants.^[15] The LED stage floor displayed water and Victoria stroked a picture of her and her father from her childhood during the song. The performance also featured smoke and an hourglass effect, which a stream of sand was poured in onto the stage with Victoria reaching and touching it.^[16][17] The stage concept of the Bulgarian performance was developed by Austrian director Marvin Dietmann.^[18] An off-stage backing vocalist also joined Victoria: the co-composer of "Growing Up Is Getting Old" Maya Nalani.^[19]

At the end of the show, Bulgaria was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final.^[20] It was later revealed that Bulgaria placed third in the semi-final, receiving a total of 250 points: 101 points from the televoting and 149 points from the juries.

Shortly after the second semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the order the countries were announced during the semi-final. Bulgaria was drawn to compete in the second half.^[21] Following this draw, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Bulgaria was subsequently placed to perform in position 17, following the entry from Finland and before the entry from Lithuania.

Victoria once again took part in dress rehearsals on 21 and 22 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show. Victoria performed a repeat of her semi-final performance during the final on 22 May. Bulgaria placed eleventh in the final, scoring 170 points: 30 points from the televoting and 140 points from the juries.

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with a diversity in gender and age represented. The judges assess each entry based on the performances during the second Dress Rehearsal of each show, which takes place the night before each live show, against a set of criteria including: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.^[22] Jury members may only take part in panel once every three years, and are obliged to confirm that they are not connected to any of the participating acts in a way that would impact their ability to vote impartially. Jury members should also vote independently, with no discussion of their vote permitted with other jury members.^[23] The exact composition of the professional jury, and the results of each country's jury and televoting were released after the grand final; the individual results from each jury member were also released in an anonymised form.^[24][25]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Bulgaria and awarded by Bulgaria in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

The following members comprised the Bulgarian jury:^[24][25]

• Tedy Katzarova [bg] (jury member in semi-final 2) – singer, songwriter
• Katya Mihaylova – singer
• Milka Miteva (jury member in the final) – musician, pianist, lecturer at the New Bulgarian University, headmaster of "L. Pipkov" National Musical School
• Krassimir Gyulmezov [bg] – singer
• Etien Levi [bg] (jury chairperson) – singer, vocal coach
• Christina Mateeva – producer and editor of music programs and shows at BNT

Detailed voting results from Bulgaria (Semi-final 2)^[26]

R/O	Country	Jury							Televote
		Juror A	Juror B	Juror C	Juror D	Juror E	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	San Marino	10	12	7	7	9	9	2	11
02	Estonia	5	8	4	5	4	4	7	10	1
03	Czech Republic	13	4	10	9	5	6	5	14
04	Greece	2	2	2	2	2	2	10	3	8
05	Austria	4	5	5	6	6	5	6	12
06	Poland	6	6	8	8	15	8	3	15
07	Moldova	1	1	1	1	1	1	12	16
08	Iceland	15	14	16	16	12	16		5	6
09	Serbia	14	13	9	10	10	13		2	10
10	Georgia	12	3	14	14	16	10	1	9	2
11	Albania	7	9	11	4	8	7	4	7	4
12	Portugal	3	10	3	3	3	3	8	6	5
13	Bulgaria
14	Finland	8	16	12	13	7	12		1	12
15	Latvia	16	7	13	11	14	14		13
16	Switzerland	11	15	15	15	13	15		4	7
17	Denmark	9	11	6	12	11	11		8	3

Detailed voting results from Bulgaria (Final)^[27]

R/O	Country	Jury							Televote
		Juror A	Juror B	Juror C	Juror D	Juror E	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Cyprus	12	22	19	10	12	16		13
02	Albania	23	21	15	14	25	23		19
03	Israel	13	10	9	2	13	8	3	14
04	Belgium	3	20	20	24	23	12		21
05	Russia	22	9	11	25	19	17		4	7
06	Malta	9	8	4	4	4	6	5	20
07	Portugal	10	7	6	5	2	5	6	18
08	Serbia	24	24	21	11	14	21		6	5
09	United Kingdom	11	6	23	12	21	14		25
10	Greece	2	2	10	3	5	3	8	9	2
11	Switzerland	7	23	13	13	10	13		8	3
12	Iceland	16	11	12	20	22	20		11
13	Spain	14	3	2	9	17	7	4	22
14	Moldova	1	1	5	1	6	1	12	15
15	Germany	15	16	25	22	24	24		16
16	Finland	21	15	7	8	7	10	1	3	8
17	Bulgaria
18	Lithuania	17	18	16	21	9	19		17
19	Ukraine	19	17	24	17	8	18		5	6
20	France	18	5	3	6	1	4	7	2	10
21	Azerbaijan	20	25	22	23	18	25		7	4
22	Norway	8	13	17	18	16	15		12
23	Netherlands	4	12	8	19	20	9	2	24
24	Italy	5	4	1	7	3	2	10	1	12
25	Sweden	6	14	14	15	11	11		10	1
26	San Marino	25	19	18	16	15	22		23

• Official BNT Eurovision site