Now let´s move on to
!! For me Bulgaria was a country I didnt´care about for a long time. Their only entry to reach the final for a long time, "Water" from 2007, was terribly overrated and their other songs were also not that special to me. But that changed a lot in 2016 when Poli Genowa reached the final in her second attempt and got a very deserved 4th place with "If Love Was a Crime", btw my personal favourite from 2016. So I was very excited about who would represent them in 2017 and if they could repeat their huge success. And what can I say?? They really did it!!
That year they were represented by Kristian Kostov, a young singer who already was a finalist at "The Voice Kids Russia" and the Bulgarian version of X-Factor. He sang the title "Beatiful Mess", an electronic influenced ballad. The atmosphere built during this song was really great and vocally he was absolutely on point, both in the semi and the grand final. The background animations were also great because they were very subtle and didn´t overshadow the song, so thumbs up to the person who had this idea.
During the ESC week I had this feeling that this could do extremely well, and during the voting I was really torn apart between many countries I supported, in the end
ended up in a very strong second place. He did really well both with the juries and in the televote, where he received points from every country, something that otherwise only
managed to do that year. I still don´t get how he only scored 5 points from the televote in
since he even got
in the semi, but even the great Poli only got
the year before, so I don´t know.
Anyway, this was a totally deserved result for
, and probably alongside
the most modern song of the year. I still listen to it a lot and I wouldn´t mind to see Kristian again in the future. I give this song a very strong
, the only reason I don´t hand out
is that some countries touched me a litle bit more on the emotional level, but it´s still a great entry!!
Congratulations Bulgaria!! Hopefully you will come back soon!!