Dara triumphed at the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, topping both the jury and public vote to deliver BNT its historic maiden victory.

Bulgaria’s Dara made history on Saturday night at the Wiener Stadthalle, winning the 70th Eurovision Song Contest with “Bangaranga” and securing the country’s first-ever victory at the competition. Scoring 516 points across both the professional jury and public televote, Dara dominated the final standings by a margin of 173 points over runner-up Israel.

The win is a landmark moment for Bulgarian public broadcaster BNT, which first entered the contest in 2005 and returned this year after a three-year absence. “Bangaranga” was written by Anne Judith Stokke Wik, Darina Yotova, Dimitris Kontopoulos, and Monoir, a seasoned international songwriting team with deep Eurovision pedigree.

Dara emerged as the jury leader following the professional vote, setting up a nail-biting combined reveal. The public vote then confirmed the result decisively, with audiences across 148 nations, two more than in 2025, backing the same winner as the juries.

Hosted by ORF at Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle, a venue that held roughly 11,000 in-person spectators, the 70th edition was a technically ambitious production. The broadcast deployed 28 ARRI Alexa 35 cinematic live cameras, nearly 50 million pixels of LED video, and a custom 12 m × 8 m curved “Infinity Screen”. For the first time in the contest’s history, the entire lighting rig ran on fully energy-efficient LED and laser technology, a milestone ORF intends to share across the EBU family as a sustainability benchmark.

The interval act turned the arena into a reunion concert, with past winners Ruslana (Ukraine, 2004), Alexander Rybak (Norway, 2009), and Lordi (Finland, 2006) returning alongside fan favourites including Verka Serduchka, Kristian Kostov, Max Mutzke, and 2025 finalists Miriana Conte and Erika Vikman. The evening opened with 2025 winner JJ, whose Mozart-inflected performance introduced all 25 finalists to the stage.

With Bulgaria’s win, BNT will now begin discussions with the EBU about hosting the 71st Eurovision Song Contest in 2027, a first for the country. The scale of the undertaking will be significant: Vienna produced a broadcast reaching millions across all participating territories and online, with grand final votes cast from 148 nations. For a broadcaster returning from a three-year absence, the logistical and financial challenge will be considerable, though the reward, placing Bulgaria at the heart of one of the world’s largest live television events, is equally historic.