Dara was given away: there was a Russian trace in the Bulgarian singer's victory at Eurovision

On May 16, the 70th Eurovision Song Contest ended in the Austrian capital Vienna, not without scandals. Following the results of the screening, a singer with the pseudonym Dara will take the crystal microphone to Bulgaria. Interestingly, People's Artist of Russia Philip Kirkorov had a hand in its preparation. He found a composer for her, Dimitris Kontopoulos, who wrote three songs, one of which, Bangaranga, eventually went to the competition. Moreover, this composition was not quoted among bookmakers, as only 4% were placed on it. The Eurovision Song Contest itself was accompanied by a series of different levels of conflicts and boycotts. Izvestia followed the participants and discussed the show with experts.

No one knew.

The Finnish duo of Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen with the song Liekinheitin was considered the absolute favorite of the bookmakers in 2026. Their chances of winning were estimated at 41%. In second place was the Australian singer Delta Goodrem with the song Eclipse (22%). Contrary to forecasts, Bulgaria became the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. Dara scored 516 points (204 points from the jury and 312 from the viewers). This is Bulgaria's first victory in the history of the contest.

To prepare the participant, representatives of the national television turned to their "countryman" Philip Kirkorov, who has long been known at Eurovision. The People's Artist confessed this to Yana Churikova. Kirkorov eventually accepted the challenge: he invited composer Dimitris Kontopoulos, who had already written and produced songs for Philip himself, as well as for Sergey Lazarev, Anya Lorak, Dima Bilan.

Dara, aka Darina Yotova, is a vociferous girl with the makings of a diva. She already has a victory on The Voice. For the national selection, she presented three songs by a Greek composer at once, and the audience liked Bangaranga more. Kirkorov attracted the well-known Swedish choreographer Fredrik Rydman to the production of this number. They decided not to bother with costumes: leather shorts, a pink T-shirt. As a result, Bulgarian techno with outspoken movements was able to energize the audience of the long-overly politicized TV show.

Boycott due to Israeli involvement

The second position after the final vote count was taken by Israeli participant Noam Bettan with the song Michelle. During his performance in the first semi-final, he faced protests in the audience. There were whistles, shouts of "Free Palestine" and "Stop the genocide" ("Freedom for Palestine" and "Stop the genocide"). Several spectators were escorted out of the hall. At the same time, the protest cries were edited out in the official YouTube entry, leaving only background noise. Bettan himself admitted that he was shocked, but found the strength to continue performing thanks to the support of those who supported him.

At the same time, five countries — Spain, Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands and Slovenia — refused to send their performers. By the way, Bulgaria might not have received a crystal microphone, because the country also wanted to support the boycott. Romania and Moldova did not plan to go, but for some reason they changed their minds at the last moment. In total, delegations from 35 countries arrived in Vienna, which is an anti—record since 2003 and the largest boycott in the entire 70-year history of the competition.

The head of the Spanish Ministry of Culture, Ernest Hurtazon, criticized the decision of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). "This is hypocrisy. Russia has been banned from international cultural events, while Israel is still allowed to perform. Why are some countries under sanctions and others not?" the official said in an interview with Euronews TV channel.

Martin Green, the new Eurovision supervisor, attributed Israel's admission to the lack of a "global consensus" around the conflict in the Gaza Strip. He said, "The Israeli public broadcaster KAN is considered to be fairly independent and remains a full member of the EBU, eligible to participate in the competition." But this means that there are still double standards in the global show business.

The reason for our country's suspension was given by EBU Deputy Director General Jean Philippe De Tender in a conversation with Politico. It turns out that the Russian public broadcaster is not considered independent of the state, so its membership in the EBU has been suspended, and it cannot participate in Eurovision.

"Forbidden fruit is always sweet,— producer Joseph Prigozhin told Izvestia. — They didn't do Russia wrong, they did it worse for themselves. They banned it and lost their 140 million audience. From the point of view of logic and business, this is just nonsense. If it were up to me, I wouldn't be going back there. Why would we do that? They don't let us win, and there's no point in sitting on the step.

Meanwhile, the protests on the streets of Vienna were only gaining momentum. People carried Palestinian flags and posters with the names of thousands of dead in Gaza. The protesters also wondered why Russia was banned. Perhaps the anger has reached the EBU leadership. And on May 15, in an interview with LBC radio station, Martin Green said that Russia could theoretically return to participating in Eurovision, provided that the rules of membership in the union are followed.

The European background and the emigrant protests

Ukraine was represented at Eurovision 2026 by LELÉKA (real name — Victoria Korniikova). In the final, she took 9th place. Her song Ridnym ("Native") was performed in English and touched on the themes of connections with roots, hope for the future and overcoming fears.

The singer's participation in the contest caused a mixed reaction. The artist received support in Europe, but not from the Ukrainian diaspora. In the words of the song, her fellow countrymen living in the EU heard a call to leave for Ukraine. Some even considered the track a planned propaganda material.

The singer was also accused of "remote patriotism" — indeed, she has been living and building a career in Germany for more than 10 years, and her success is ensured by European producers. Hence, apparently, there were opinions that the song indirectly hints to Ukrainian immigrants: it's time to leave.

Without plagiarism, as without hands

The song of Eva Maria, a participant from Luxembourg, Mother Nature, was suspected of borrowing from the track Keeping Your Head Up by the British Birdy. However, the EBU check did not reveal any violations. Similar claims arose against Moldovan artist Satoshi: the audience noticed the similarity of his track Viva, Moldova! with the hit "Oops!" by the band "Disco Accident".

The favorites of the contest, the Finnish duo of violinist Linda Lampenius and singer Pete Parkkonen, who ended up on the sixth line, attracted attention not only with their performance, but also with behind—the-scenes videos on social networks. There they humorously imitated Dima Bilan. In informal videos, the duo played the famous number of the Russian singer at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, Believe, where the violin and the performance of figure skater Evgeny Plushenko played a key role. Only a guy on roller skates was circling around the Finnish artists.

The fellow countrymen of the singers from the Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu TV company were also very worried. The Finns have published the results of the second semi-final with the Croatian participant flying the Russian flag. The Israeli TV channel Kan 11 showed Armenia and Azerbaijan under the same Azerbaijani flag during the broadcast of the second semi—final. This caused outrage in the Armenian Diaspora of Israel.

—We really liked the representative of Australia, Delta Goodrem, she is a superstar in her homeland and confirmed this at the contest," producer Ksenia Rubtsova, who won the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the Buranovskiye Babushki, told Izvestia. — This is how real artists should look: a beautiful woman in a luxurious dress, accompanied herself on the piano. When we found out that Dara from Bulgaria won, we were sincerely happy for her. The hand of the master is felt. Congratulations to Philip Kirkorov.

In general, no matter how they tried to squeeze Russia out of the popular music competition, it still couldn't do without it. Well, while we were being canceled, the Russian Federation organized its own international song show, Intervision.

And from the stage in Vienna at the final of the contest, they announced that the new Eurovision Asia contest is scheduled for November 14, 2026 in Bangkok.