After much hype and anticipation, Bulgaria released their song, Bones, for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. The release date of 12 March meant it was one of only a few songs left to be revealed for Lisbon….adding to the “drama” I guess.
Bones is performed by Equinox, a five-person group that has very obviously been manufactured for the sole purpose of Eurovision. The group is made up of Zhana Bergendorff, Georgi Simeonov, Johnny Manuel, Trey Campbell and Vlado Mihailov. Basically the group is a mixed bag of X Factor people, America’s Got Talent people, Bulgarians and Americans.
The song composers are Borislav Milanov, Joacim Bo Persson, Trey Campbell and Dag Lundberg. Borislav and Joacim both have writing credits for Bulgaria’s two most recent Eurovision songs, Beautiful Mess and If Love Was a Crime.
The Bulgarian national broadcaster, BNT, used an internal selection process that shortlisted 13 songs from hundreds of submissions and then had an expert panel finally select their song.
The Bulgarian delegation have claimed that Bones is a dark and soulful ballad that has deep emotions and a powerful chorus. Well they would say that wouldn’t they. It's a moody little number, I'll give it that.
Following the betting odds, Bones tumbled out of overall favouritism after it was released, albeit with a little help from Israel’s popular song. It’s clear the “fans” are underwhelmed but there’s hope that things could revived with some good staging in Lisbon, something that isn’t out of the realms given Bulgaria’s past efforts.
It’s obvious their desire to win “goes beyond the bones” but the question is with the “manufacturing” and the “hyper PR game”, have Bulgaria inadvertently sucked the life out of their chances in Lisbon?