Dara, a pop singer from Bulgaria, won Eurovision yesterday with the largest margin ever. The contest has been around for 70 years and is the most watched and popular music event in Europe where musicians from 35 countries enter to compete.
Staying true to my vow not to work weekends, I decided to be spontaneous and joined my wife to watch the entire four hour event.
A Bulgarian singer won it for the first time ever which is a milestone in itself for our small and fiercely creative country.
In 2015 Dara appeared on the X Factor Bulgaria. She was an unknown artist from the seaside city of Varna. She was 16 and finished 3rd. Here she is performing back in the day…
We fast forward to 2026 when Dara almost quit after online hate in Bulgaria unleashed when she was chosen to represent our country at Eurovision 2026. Sadly, as in the US, Bulgarian society is very polarized. But she soldiered on and won the judges votes (seven judges in each of the 35 countries vote). She also won the audience votes.
Fun fact: Dara incorporated treadmill running while singing into her preparation to build stamina for the intense live “Bangaranga” Eurovision performance.
Her win made me reflect on showing up and what that means. That unless one shows up for what they believe in, purpose wanes, we become prisoners of wishful thinking, regret settles in.
Showing up every day allows for artistic vision to bloom.
Showing up nudges the craft to surprise the artist.
Showing up is the performance, the song, it is passion, union and friendship.
Let showing up do the talking. The rest is noise.
Congrats to Dara and her Team!
For those of you who wish to dig deeper, I did some more research on how many artists came together for this performance and song. Why? Because the commitment to your craft and connecting to an audience, which is what wining is, require an artist to show up day after day in real life.
Keep showing up!
Bogdan
P.S. Stay tuned for next week’s post on how a dream I had in June of 2025 helped shape my new film SPOKE!
“Bangaranga” is officially credited to four songwriters, all of whom are also credited as composers:
Anne Judith Wik (Norway), a Norwegian songwriter associated with the Dsign Music team, known for writing for international pop acts.
Cristian Tarcea (Romania), a Romanian producer-songwriter better known as Monoir, active across Balkan and European pop.
Dimitris Kontopoulos (Greece), a Greek composer and producer with a long Eurovision track record for several countries.
Darina Yotova “Dara” (Bulgaria), the performer, credited as both songwriter and composer, bringing her own phrasing and Bulgarian pop sensibility to the track.
Production was handled by Cristian Tarcea (Monoir) together with Dimitris Kontopoulos, who is credited as co-producer under his alias Starchyld X. This cross-border writing and production team helped shape the song’s blend of Balkan rhythms, a big pop chorus, and EDM-adjacent drops that stood out at Eurovision 2026.
Although the writing and production team is international, the entry was submitted by Bulgarian National Television (BNT), and “Bangaranga” was chosen through a national selection where a jury and public vote picked the song from three options prepared by Dara with an international team.
The live performance’s visual identity and staging were shaped by Fredrik “Benke” Rydman, hired as creative director for Bulgaria’s 2026 entry. Rydman was already well established in Eurovision circles, having previously staged Sweden’s 2015 winner and Switzerland’s 2024 winner, as well as serving as creative director for France and Albania in 2025. He brought a cinematic, story-driven approach to “Bangaranga,” partly inspired by the Bulgarian kukeri tradition of driving away evil spirits through noise and movement.
Because Rydman is based in Stockholm, Dara traveled there to work with him and his team before Vienna, refining the staging, choreography, and costumes. Rehearsal clips and audience accounts from Vienna emphasize how the staging maintained constant motion through dancers, LED visuals, and dynamic camera angles, while still protecting Dara’s endurance across three minutes of live singing and dancing.
The result: “Bangaranga” won the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna with 516 points and a 173-point winning margin whihc is the largest in the contest’s history.
Sources & further reading:
A beautiful story! Congrats to the first Bulgarian champion!!!
Bangaranga!