{"id":3363,"date":"2026-05-17T21:07:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T21:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3363"},"modified":"2026-05-17T21:07:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T21:07:55","slug":"bulgaria-wins-eurovision-song-contest-israel-comes-second-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3363","title":{"rendered":"Bulgaria wins Eurovision Song Contest; Israel comes second again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Bulgaria won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time on Saturday in a final overshadowed by five countries&#8217; boycott over Gaza, claiming a dramatic victory despite another \u200cbig public vote for Israel that again secured it second place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The garish and usually good-natured competition involving pop acts from countries across Europe and beyond, now in its 70th year, was plunged into crisis by a dispute over Israel&#8217;s military offensive in Gaza, \u200ca response to the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Asake - Organise (Official Video)\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_u4_iWCvZ5c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The public broadcasters of heavyweights \u2060Spain, the Netherlands and Ireland, as well as Iceland and Slovenia, chose not \u2060to take part in protest at \u2060Israel&#8217;s participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Israel has alleged a global smear campaign against it. Its performance at the final was not, \u200chowever, marred by any obvious protests, unlike Tuesday&#8217;s semifinal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This is unbelievable. I don&#8217;t even know what&#8217;s going on right \u2060now,&#8221; Bulgaria&#8217;s entrant Dara told a press conference after \u2060winning with her thumping, crowd-pleasing dance track &#8220;Bangaranga&#8221; that avoided politics altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The song touches on themes of empowerment and surrendering to the night. It also left many puzzled as to its meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Bangaranga is a feeling that everybody gets in themselves. It&#8217;s the moment that you choose to be in love and \u2060not fear,&#8221; Dara said when asked to explain the song in the &#8220;green room&#8221; where artists await the \u2060results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This is a special energy \u2026 Once you feel (at) \u200cone with nature and your universe, you feel the harmony that you can be whatever you want to be and that everything is possible,&#8221; she said. <a href=\"https:\/\/japantoday.com\/category\/entertainment\/bulgaria-wins-eurovision-song-contest-israel-comes-second-again2\">(JapanToday)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bulgaria won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time on Saturday in a final overshadowed by five countries&#8217; boycott over Gaza, claiming a dramatic victory despite another \u200cbig public vote for Israel that again secured it second place. The garish and usually good-natured competition involving pop acts from countries across Europe and beyond, now [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[3481,3482,1377,3480,53,52],"class_list":["post-3363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-bulgaria","tag-dara","tag-europe","tag-eurovision-song-contest","tag-gaza","tag-israel"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bulgaria wins Eurovision Song Contest; Israel comes second again - Tona Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bulgaria won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time on Saturday in a final overshadowed by five countries&#039; boycott\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3363\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bulgaria wins Eurovision Song Contest; 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