Bulgaria's Breakthrough With Bilingual Pop

MAY 15 2016 · 12:35

Poli Genova · "If Love Was a Crime" · Bulgaria · 2016 Placement: 4 · Score: 307 · Language: English, Bulgarian · Composers: Borislav Milanov, Sebastian Arman, Joacim Persson · Venue: Ericsson Globe · Host: Stockholm, Sweden · Type: performance innovation · Broadcast: streaming era Genova — Bulgaria's returning 2011 entrant, 29, platinum hair, red leather — takes the Ericsson Globe stage with a four-dancer crew and delivers a pounding English-Bulgarian hybrid pop song with sharp choreography. 307 points for 4th — Bulgaria's best-ever Eurovision placement. Jamala wins for Ukraine with '1944'. Context Borislav Milanov was emerging as Bulgaria's dominant Eurovision composer — he would co-write the 2017 Kristian Kostov 2nd-place entry. The song's Bulgarian-language bridge was a deliberate national-cultural choice. BNT had doubled its Eurovision budget after Genova's 2011 appearance failed to qualify. Legacy The 4th-place result vaulted Bulgaria into Eurovision's top tier. Milanov's subsequent entries (Kostov 2017, Equinox 2018) continued the pattern. Genova became a Bulgarian pop institution. The bilingual template she used became the model for subsequent Eastern European Eurovision entries.