Bulgaria celebrated its first-ever victory at the Eurovision Song Contest on Sunday after singer-songwriter Dara secured a decisive win with her dance anthem “Bangaranga,” prompting scenes of celebration across the country and drawing praise from political leaders during a period marked by prolonged domestic instability.

The 27-year-old performer, whose full name is Darina Nikolaeva Yotova, returned to Sofia to a public welcome after winning the 70th edition of the contest in Vienna with 516 points, comfortably ahead of Israel’s entry “Michelle,” performed by Noam Bettan, which finished second with 343 points.

Eurovision organisers said Bulgaria’s entry won both the jury and public vote, marking the first time in nearly a decade that one act had topped both categories since the 2017 contest in Kyiv.Prime Minister Rumen Radev described the victory as a significant national achievement and praised Dara for overcoming what he called the political and cultural complexities often associated with Eurovision voting.

“Dara is yet more proof that Bulgaria can win,” Radev said, adding that the singer had risen “above all the complexities and prejudices surrounding the voting process” through “talent and professionalism.”

The result delivered a rare moment of national unity in Bulgaria, an EU member state that has experienced years of political turbulence and repeated elections. The country has held eight elections in five years amid fragmented coalition politics and continuing institutional instability.

Ina Dobreva, Dara’s former acting teacher in the Black Sea city of Varna, said the singer’s victory had resonated beyond the music competition itself.“Bulgarians really needed to have a moment like this where we can gather around common happiness,” Dobreva said.

For many younger Bulgarians, the Eurovision result represented a symbolic breakthrough for a country that has often struggled for visibility on the European cultural stage.“I didn’t expect Bulgaria to win, so it was quite nice to see that for the first time, we actually managed to do it,” said Kristina Dureva, a 25-year-old recruitment specialist from Sofia.

Ilayda Kayalar, a 21-year-old interior design student, said the victory reinforced Bulgaria’s place within Europe while improving the country’s international profile.“Winning means that Bulgaria is finally known for something,” Kayalar said.

The contest itself unfolded against a backdrop of political controversy surrounding Israel’s participation. Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland boycotted this year’s competition in protest, while hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered outside Vienna’s host venue chanting slogans against the event.

Despite the political tensions surrounding the competition, Eurovision organisers emphasised the scale of support received by the Bulgarian entry across both professional juries and public voting systems.

Dara’s performance combined electronic dance production with Balkan-inspired rhythms and multilingual lyrics, helping “Bangaranga” emerge as one of the surprise successes of the competition season after initially receiving limited expectations from bookmakers and commentators.

Speaking after her victory, Dara said the song reflected optimism during a period of wider international uncertainty.“In a turbulent world, Bangaranga represented a quiet belief that everything’s going to be all right,” she told reporters at a post-event press conference.

“Nobody believed that we can win and that Bangaranga can win, and having this love from all the juries and all the audience tonight, it feels like a dream,” she added.The singer’s arrival in Sofia on Sunday evening was marked by celebrations organised by local authorities.

Sofia mayor Vasil Terziev said Dara would receive a ceremonial welcome featuring a red carpet reception in the capital.Attention has already shifted toward preparations for the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest, which Bulgaria is now expected to host following the victory.

According to Bulgarian media reports, Sofia and the Black Sea port city of Burgas are both preparing bids to stage next year’s competition.The general director of BNT, Bulgaria’s public broadcaster, said discussions over hosting arrangements were already under way shortly after the final concluded.

Bulgaria first entered Eurovision in 2005 but had never previously won the competition. The country achieved its best prior result in 2017, when Kristian Kostov finished second with the song “Beautiful Mess.”

This year’s victory is expected to boost the profile of Bulgaria’s music industry internationally while providing a cultural milestone for a country that has frequently faced political and economic challenges since joining the European Union in 2007.

The United Kingdom again struggled in the competition, finishing last with just one point. Its entry, “Ein, Zwei, Drei,” was performed by musician Sam Battle, known professionally as Look Mum No Computer.

Israel’s second-place finish nevertheless drew significant attention given the political controversy surrounding its participation. Demonstrations outside the Vienna venue remained largely peaceful, according to organisers and local authorities.

Dara’s victory capped a contest that mixed geopolitical tensions with one of Eurovision’s strongest audience turnouts in recent years, as organisers reported substantial public voting participation across Europe.

The 2026 edition of the Venice Biennale has opened with a mix of controversy, political debate and large-scale experimental installations, as artists across Venice use performance, sound, sculpture and archival work to address themes ranging from war and surveillance to technology and public memory.

Spread across the Giardini, Arsenale and dozens of satellite venues, this year’s biennale has drawn attention not only for its official exhibitions but also for the reactions they have provoked from governments, visitors and even local police.Among the most discussed works is the Austrian pavilion by Florentina Holzinger, whose immersive performance installation transformed the national pavilion into a chaotic post-apocalyptic environment.

The performance opened with Holzinger suspended upside down from the clappers of a large bell while performers moved through the space naked. One woman repeatedly drove a speedboat in circles inside the pavilion, while others balanced high above visitors or remained submerged in water tanks.The installation also incorporated functioning toilets connected to a filtration system intended to purify visitors’ urine and redirect it into a large water tank.

Nearby sections of the exhibition appeared deliberately engineered to resemble flooding or sewage failure, creating an atmosphere of collapse and instability. During one viewing, police officers entered the pavilion to question the nature of the performance after complaints or confusion from attendees.

The Austrian pavilion quickly became one of the central talking points of the biennale’s opening week, reinforcing Holzinger’s reputation for physically extreme and confrontational live art.Elsewhere in Venice, painter Sanya Kantarovsky presented “Basic Failure” inside the historic Palazzo Loredan.

Kantarovsky, born in Moscow before emigrating to the United States as a child, filled the palazzo’s ornate interiors with psychologically tense paintings that resemble still frames from unresolved narratives.

The exhibition pairs unsettling domestic imagery with the grandeur of Venetian interiors lined with books and Murano glass chandeliers. The show culminates in a detailed Murano glass sculpture of a young boy’s head, creating what visitors described as a dialogue between contemporary anxiety and historical opulence.

Political tensions surrounding this year’s biennale were particularly visible in the case of South African artist Gabrielle Goliath. Goliath had originally been expected to participate officially before South African authorities blocked the presentation of her work “Elegy”, describing it as divisive because it referenced a Palestinian poet.Despite the decision, Goliath proceeded with an independent presentation at the Chiesa di Sant’Antonin in collaboration with arts organisation Ibraaz.

The performance features classically trained female vocalists sustaining single notes until their voices fade before being replaced by another performer.Originally conceived in 2015, the work functions as a ritual mourning piece dedicated to women killed through racialised and sexualised violence. Visitors described the installation as one of the most emotionally direct works outside the biennale’s central exhibition.

At the Arsenale, American artist Carrie Schneider contributed one of the most visually expansive works in the main exhibition “In Minor Keys.” Schneider’s installation stretches across approximately 1.5 kilometres of photographic material derived from repeated stills of La Jetée by Chris Marker.The scale of the installation stood out inside the industrial spaces of the Arsenale, where several works struggled to compete with the architecture’s vast dimensions.

Other notable contributions included photographic archives from Francophone Africa by Akinbode Akinbiyi and documentary material addressing destruction and displacement in Gaza.British-Algerian artist Lydia Ourahmane presented one of the quieter but widely praised exhibitions at the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation. Her project “5 Works” incorporates materials and labour drawn entirely from Venice itself.

The installation includes a newly constructed wooden pier intended for future public use, a curtain made of Murano glass beads assembled by inmates from the Giudecca women’s prison, and a modified church lighting mechanism activated through the insertion of a one-euro coin.Questions surrounding surveillance and state power appear prominently in “Canicula,” a film exhibition at the Complesso dell’Ospedaletto.

Lebanese-British artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan contributed “450XL: the Story of a Fugitive Sound,” an investigation into allegations that Serbian authorities used sonic devices to disperse peaceful anti-government demonstrators.Installed inside the former hospital’s historic music room, the work combines witness testimony, sound analysis and multi-screen projections arranged like protest placards.

The war in Ukraine also remains a major presence at the biennale. The Ukrainian pavilion features a large concrete deer sculpture by Zhanna Kadyrova that was transported from Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine after difficult evacuation efforts during the conflict.Video footage documents the sculpture’s journey through Europe as refugees from Pokrovsk encounter the work in transit. Pokrovsk is now under Russian military control, giving the installation additional political and emotional weight.

Technology and artificial intelligence appear prominently inside the Chinese pavilion at the Arsenale, where artists explored the relationship between machines and creativity. Works include robotic calligraphy, digitally generated landscapes and interactive installations inspired by Chinese mythology and gaming culture.

One of the final installations in the pavilion is a field of “digital chairs” by Chinese designer Zhang Zhoujie, offering visitors a place to rest after navigating the biennale’s large-scale exhibitions.Away from official installations, one of the unexpected attractions of the opening week emerged outside the Polish pavilion, where a nesting gull drew crowds of confused visitors unsure whether the bird itself formed part of an artwork.

The gull, enclosed behind a temporary white fence, quickly became an informal symbol of the biennale’s blend of performance, ambiguity and public spectacle.