Bulgaria in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015


Bulgaria was represented at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015, as the host country, after Italy who had won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2014, declined the invitation from the European Broadcasting Union to host the contest. The event took place at the Arena Armeec on 21 November 2015. National broadcasters Bulgarian National Television and bTV jointly organised the national selection process, in order to decide who would represent them on home soil.
Submissions for the national selection shows opened in July 2015, for singers aged between 10 and 15. A professional jury of members from the music industry, selected the best entries to proceed forward to a non-televised auditions event that took place in August 2015. Twenty-four artists were chosen to participate in one of four semi-finals, which were broadcast live between 31 August to 3 September 2015. Jury members selected two artists from each of the four semi-finals, whilst the remaining artist from each semi-final was determined by a public televote.
The twelve chosen artists from the semi-finals, advanced into the grand final which was scheduled to take place on 8 September 2015. The winning participant was selected by a 50/50 combination of both telephone vote and the votes of jury members made up of music professionals. Gabriela Yordanova represented Bulgaria in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015. The song that she performed at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest is "Colour of Hope" and she was accompanied by the runner-up of the election, Ivan Stoyanov.
Bulgaria finished 9th in the final with 62 points.

Host country selection

Following 's win at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2014, the European Broadcasting Union had given the Italian broadcaster RAI the first refusal to host the 2015 contest. However, on 15 January 2015, RAI declined the right to host the contest. The Executive Supervisor for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, Vladislav Yakovlev, praised the Italian broadcaster RAI for their time looking into the possibilities of hosting, even though they made their début appearance in 2014, and further explained how the EBU were in a lucky position to have received bids from two countries.
The EBU announced later that day that they had received bids from two countries to host the contest; those countries being and, who finished in second and fourth places respectively in 2014. Bulgarian broadcaster BNT confirmed on 15 January they had submitted a bid to host the 2015 contest. The national broadcaster for Malta, Public Broadcasting Services, stated prior to the 2014 contest that they would host again if they won.
On 26 January 2015, it was announced that Bulgaria had been chosen to host the 2015 edition, which took place on the 21 November 2015. It was the first time that the nation organised any Eurovision event. In March 2015, it was confirmed that Sofia would be the host city, with the Arena Armeec being the host venue.

Before Junior Eurovision

National selection

In a joint organised event, Bulgarian broadcasters BNT and bTV, opened submissions between 3 and 23 July for singers aged between 10 and 15 to send their audio or video recordings to the Slavi Show team. After the deadline, a professional jury of music experts selected the best ones to proceed to the audition heats round. The selected singers were invited to perform live, in a series of audition heats, in front of a different jury made up of music experts and representatives from the three organisations to select the acts going forward to a live shows. The process to select the representative began on 17 August 2015 during the "Slavi's Show" on bTV, the programme in which Krisia, Hasan & Ibrahim were discovered. The selection procedure included internal audition heats, semi-finals and a national final which were broadcast during prime time. Over 90 kids participated in the auditions, where the judging panel consisting Slavi Trifonov and Evgeni Dimitrov, who were behind last year's entry "Planet of the Children", and Georgi Milchev and Filip Stanev judged the singers. A total of 24 stars were selected from the auditions to compete at the live semi-finals. From this stage of the show there were also hosts - Petya Dikova and Boris Soltariyski. The format was also changed from the auditions - the jury, now in a new lineup, would select 8 finalists out of 12, with the audience in charge of voting through SMS to decide who would be the other 4 finalists. During the final the voting system was changed again - the winning participant who would represent Bulgaria on home soil, would be selected by a 50/50 combination of both telephone vote and the votes of jury members made up of music professionals. The song that the winning artist would perform at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest was chosen internally by the national broadcaster and announced at a later date.

Heats

Eleonora IvanovaElisabeta Tasheva
Eliya TodorovaGabriela Yordanova
Ivan StoyanovIvana Baldarkova
Kristian PavlovLiliya Stoyanova
Mariya BakardzhievaMaya Stoycheva
Mila AngelovaNikol Kaneva
Nora KaraslavovRosen Petrov
Yuliana MurZara Uzunova

Anna DrumevaDilyan & Kostadin Dyankov
Gabriela IvanovaGeorgi Todorov
Kristalena StoyanovaKristiana Kirilova
Lora GerdzhikovaMariya Bozhinova
Mariya DimovaPatrisiya Simeonova
Simona IvanovaStanimira Ruseva
Svetlana RadoslavovaTeodor Palazov
Valentina KunchevaViktoriya Glavcheva
Viktoriya Maneva

Aleksana StamovaAleksandar Tanev
Aleksandrina MehandzhiyskaAlisa Krasteva
Dimitrina GermanovaEleonora Dimitrova
Elinor PalazovaIvanina Balkova
Ivo-Konstantin NachevKatrin Tsolova
Pavel PintevPetya Georgieva
Preslava PetrovaTeodora Lilova
Teodora TodorovaValentina Nikova
Yana KrastevaYana Sabanova

Borislava TsekovaDaliya Isam Al-Atar
Evgeniya StoyanovaGabriela Gaydadzhieva
Hristina GrebchevaKristina Pashkova
Lyubomira BushevaMoyra Yankova
Nikol PalaschevaPetar Bechev
Radko PetkovRaya Krumova
Simona KrastevaStefani Aleksieva
Vesela AsenovaVIVA
Zhasmin Stoyanova

Elena BanchevaGergana Todorova
Ivona GeorgievaMariam Mavrova
Mariya-Magdalena YordanovaMonika Petrova
Niya YanevaPavel Mateev
Petya KostovaStilyana Stoynova
Valentina DemirevaVesela Paunova

Aleksandra ZlatevaAndrea Nacheva
Andzhela NakuDaniela Stoyanova
Dara EkimovaFilip Filchev
Gabriela TsvetkovaGabriela Zhivkova
Ivana VasilevaKalina Popova
Preslava TsankovaValentin Kalenov & Nikoleta Sachkova
Viktoriya AnastasovaViktoriya Tsankova

Semi-final 1

The first semi-final took place on 31 August. Eleonora Ivanova, Pavel Mateev and Ivan Stoyanov advanced to the final. The semi-final was hosted by Petya Dikova and Boris Soltariyski. Six children each performed a three-minute pop song together with the 'Ku-Ku Band' - the resident band of "Slavi's show". The public was able to choose their favourite of the six to go to the final, by voting online and by SMS. The jury chose another two artists, making a total of three from each show and 12 finalists overall.
;Key legend
DrawArtistSong Result
1Eleonora Ivanova"Wrecking Ball" Advanced
2Aleksandrina Mehandzhiyska"The Edge of Glory" Eliminated
3Pavel Mateev"Nikoi" Advanced
4Preslava Petrova"One Night Only" Eliminated
5Yuliana Mur"Nashe lyato" Eliminated
6Ivan Stoyanov"Mercy" Advanced

Semi-final 2

The second semi-final took place on 1 September. Lora Gerdzhikova, Simona Ivanova and Filip Filchev advanced to the final. The semi-final was hosted by Petya Dikova and Boris Soltariyski. Six children each performed a three-minute pop song together with the 'Ku-Ku Band' - the resident band of "Slavi's show". The public was able to choose their favourite of the six to go to the final, by voting online and by SMS. The jury chose another two artists, making a total of three from each show and 12 finalists overall.
DrawArtistSong Result
1Alisa Krasteva"Price Tag" Eliminated
2Lora Gerdzhikova"Impossible" Advanced
3Teodor Palazov"New York, New York" Eliminated
4Kristiana Kirilova"Dusha" Eliminated
5Simona Ivanova"Je Veux" Advanced
6Filip Filchev"Easy" Advanced