BULGARIA dramatically won the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest last night after pipping leaders Israel to the post.
Twenty five nations battled it out in the final, but it was Bulgaria who emerged triumphant and lifted the iconic glass microphone trophy for the first time.
The Balkan nation had finished top of the ladder after the jury votes with Australia in second place followed by Denmark, France and Finland.
Then in a dramatic finish, Bulgaria pipped Israel at the post with 516 points to the Middle Eastern nation’s 343.
Dara performed her quirky hit Bangaranga to much adulation from the audience in Vienna, Austria.
This year marked the 70th edition of the competition.
The UK automatically qualified for last night’s final as part of the ‘Big Four’ who are the contest’s biggest funders, but walked away with only one point in last place.
The other countries in the Big Four are Italy, France and Germany.
What Bangaranga mean?
Bulgaria’s Dara explained that the main word in her Eurovision winning song means to love yourself, be one with nature and to open your ‘heart chakra’ to the world.
Dara brought her country its first Eurovision win after 15 attempts to lift the glass microphone trophy.
She topped both the audience and jury votes in what was a runaway hit of the night.
UK in crushing Eurovision defeat
The UK suffered yet another crushing Eurovision Song Contest defeat in tonight’s grand final.
Look Mum No Computer’s Sam Battle took to the stage to perform his bonkers entry titled Eins, Zwei, Drei.
But it sadly wasn’t enough to win over the voters – landing just one point from the jury and zero points from the public, placing him in bottom spot.
The competition was won by Bulgaria after 25 acts battled it out on stage in Vienna, Austria at the Wiener Stadthalle.
Sam performed his upbeat hit, which was one of our most unconventional songs ever.
A breakdown of the final Eurovision scores
Lifting the iconic glass microphone trophy for 2026 was Bulgaria.
The country came through at the last moment to smash its competitors out of the water on 516 points.
Dara performed her song Bangaranga for a second time before lifting the iconic glass trophy.
Here is the breakdown of tonight’s votes in full:
JURY VOTES
- Bulgaria: 204
- Australia: 165
- Denmark: 165
- France: 144
- Finland: 141
- Italy: 134
- Poland: 133
- Israel: 123
- Norway: 115
- Czechia: 104
- Malta: 81
- Greece: 73
- Romania: 64
- Albania: 60
- Ukraine: 54
- Croatia: 53
- Moldova: 43
- Cyprus: 41
- Serbia: 38
- Belgium: 36
- Sweden: 35
- Germany: 12
- Lithuania: 10
- United Kingdom: 1
- Austria: 1
Goodnight UK!
Thanks so much for joining me to watch Eurovision together, it was a wild ride.
Be sure to keep an eye on The Sun for all the behind the scenes gossip and news from Eurovision.
And the winner is….
Bulgaria has won Eurovision 2026! It’s first for the Eastern European nation.
It was a very close race with Israel almost taking the top spot after winning 220 points in the audience vote.
But Bulgaria came through at the last moment to smash them out of the water on 516 points.
Dara performed her song Bangaranga for a second time before lifting the iconic glass trophy.
Strong reaction to Israel racing to the top
Israel received a whopping 220 points in the audience vote to take them to the top of the table before the final results are still waiting to be read out.
However, the live audience was heard booing very loudly to Israel going to the top.
It comes over growing calls for Israel to be banned from Eurovision over its military actions in Gaza.
Five countries – Ireland, Spain, Iceland, the Netherlands and Slovenia – boycotted this year’s competition over this year’s inclusion of Israel.
It’s time for the public votes
Bulgaria leads Australia by 39 points, followed by Denmark and France.
Finland rounds out the top five before we learn the audience votes.
UK has voted
Drag queen La Voix announced the UK’s votes and we’ve given 12 to France, who now moves into third place.
Bulgaria in the lead
With only 15 countries left to count, Bulgaria is in the lead followed by Italy and Finland in third.
We still need to count the audience votes and potentially could be completely different to how the juries voted.
Here’s how the voting works
The grand final of Eurovision 2026 finishes at 11.50pm, after the winner of the competition has been crowned.
The winner will be announced towards the end of the broadcast and will perform their winning entry once more before the credits roll.
The voting is split between online votes and national juries.
A national jury of seven people decides the first half of the voting.
These results are announced first, and often have famous people from that country reading the results out.
