3MinuteBulgaria

Sotiris Romas Bulgaria’s National Identity        National identity has been difficult to define over time as so many factors go into identifying with a state or nation. According to Anthony Smith (1991, p. 595), a nation is “a named human population sharing an historic territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass, public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for all members”. National identity is meant to allow people to come together with similar people that share the same background and ideals. National identity is the sense of belonging and identifying with a certain state or nation based on culture, religion, and language, for example. My country, Bulgaria, specifically identifies with these examples of national identity and uses them to distinguish themselves from the “norm” of Europe’s Southeastern countries. The first main example of national identity is Bulgaria’s language and the fact that Modern Bulgarian has bee...

Hello readers, this is Sotiris Romas and this blog will be about Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest as we discuss their song choices, recent successes and the recent participation Bulgaria has had in the competition. Bulgaria has competed in the competition 12 out of the last 14 years and have made the Grand Final 4 times with their best finish being second place in 2017. Even with the recent success in the competition, finishing top 15 in each of the past three years, Bulgaria National Television (BNT) has decided to not participate in Eurovision 2019 because of financial reasons. BNT is blamed for the financial crisis and the withdrawal of the competition because they were found overspending for their performance in 2018 with their song "Bones". The reasons for the overspending were bringing in a foreign choreographer and promoting the song heavily leading up to the competition. This is heartbreaking news for a country truly beginning to grow into the competition and f...