Bulgaria wins the Eurovision Song Contest 2026

Bulgarian Dara has won the 70th Eurovision Song Contest with 516 points for her song ‘Banagaranga’.

Israeli Noam Bettan came second with 343 points for his song “Michelle”, while Alexandra Căpitănescu, who represented Romania with the song “Choke Me”, took third place with 296 points.

Last place went to Great Britain, who was represented by Sam Battle, performing under the stage name Look Mum No Computer, with the song “Eins, Zwei, Drei.”

Australia and Italy rounded out the top five with Delta Goodrem’s song “Eclipse” in fourth place (with 287 points) and Sal Da Vinci, who sang “Per Semper Sì”, at number five (with 281 points).

Da Vinci won the song at the Sanremo Music Festival earlier this year, giving him the right of first refusal to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest. Other familiar faces at the competition included Cypriot entry Antigoni, who British viewers may recognize from 2022 season 8 of ‘Love Island’, who performed her song ‘Jalla’, and of course Goodrem, who appeared in the long-running Australian soap ‘Neighbours’ before embarking on a singing career.

This year’s competition, which took place at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria, had the theme ‘United by Music’ and represented the 70th anniversary of the competition. The Austrian presenters were model and singer Victoria Swarovski and actor Michael Ostrowski

Despite some protests, including the boycott of five countries, this was the second year that Israel came in second place after Yuval Raphael performed her song “New Day Will Rise.” Bettan received a respective number of votes from the juries, coming in fifteenth place after the jury votes were tallied, and rising to number one after the public awarded Israel 220 points. However, it ultimately could not compete with Bulgaria’s 589 audience points, resulting in the country’s first ever win at the competition.

This year, 35 countries voted in the competition, with votes weighted equally between each country’s juries and the public.

Last year’s winner, the Swiss JJ, was present at the competition to present the glass trophy to Dara. JJ won in 2025 with the song ‘Waster Love’ and achieved 436 points.

The Eurovision Song Contest was first launched in 1956, making it the world’s longest-running annual international televised music competition.