Krassimir Avramov

Since 2005, the broadcaster has organised a national final in order to select the Bulgarian entry for the competition, a selection procedure that continued for their 2009 entry.

The nation achieved their best result in the contest in 2007 with the song "Water" performed by Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov, which placed fifth.

To this point, their 2007 entry is also the only Bulgarian entry to have qualified to the Eurovision final; the nation had failed to qualify to the final with their other three entries.

In 2008, Deep Zone and Balthazar and their song "DJ, Take Me Away" failed to qualify to the final.

The Bulgarian national broadcaster, Bulgarian National Television (BNT), broadcasts the event within Bulgaria and organises the selection process for the nation's entry.

BNT confirmed Bulgaria's participation in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest on 6 July 2008.

The competition consisted of three monthly selections between October and December 2008, held at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia.

All shows were hosted by Neli Atanasova and Dragomir Draganov and broadcast on BNT 1 as well as online via the broadcaster's website bnt.bg.

The three monthly selections each featured three weekly heats with five competing entries each.

Public televoting and the votes of a jury panel selected three entries from each heat to advance to the monthly final.

The jury selected the first qualifier, while the remaining four entries faced a public televote which selected an additional two qualifiers to proceed in the competition.

On 6 July 2008, BNT opened a submission period for artists and songwriters to submit their entries until 19 September 2008.

Songs were required to contain partial Bulgarian involvement.

By the end of the deadline, the broadcaster received 45 eligible entries out of the 54 submitted.

On 20 September 2008, the forty-five artists and songs for the competition were announced.

Prior to the fourth heat, Sahara withdrew her song "Don't Kiss for Money" from the competition in order to be selected for the second phase of the national final.

The October selection took place between 2 and 23 October 2008.

Three entries qualified to the monthly final from each heat.

A jury panel first selected one song to advance and the remaining entries then faced a public televote which determined an additional two qualifiers.

The November selection took place between 30 October and 13 November 2008.

Three entries qualified to the monthly final from each heat.

A jury panel first selected one songs to advance and the remaining entries then faced a public televote which determined an additional two qualifiers.

The December selection took place between 27 November and 11 December 2008.

Bulgaria participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "Illusion" written by Krassimir Avramov, William Tabanou and Casie Tabanou.

The song was performed by Avramov.

The Bulgarian broadcaster Bulgarian National Television (BNT) organised the national final Bŭlgarskata pesen v „Evroviziya 2009” in order to select the Bulgarian entry for the 2009 contest in Moscow, Russia.

45 entries were selected to participate in the first phase of the national final, Be a Star, which consisted of three monthly selections.

Nine entries qualified to compete in Bŭlgarskata pesen v „Evroviziya 2009” which consisted of two shows: a semi-final and a final, held on 24 January 2009 and 21 February 2009, respectively.

Eighteen entries competed in the semi-final and the top nine songs as determined by an eight-member jury panel qualified to the final alongside three pre-qualified songs.

In the final, public televoting exclusively selected "Illusion" performed by Avramov as the winning entry with 19,553 votes.

Bulgaria was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 12 May 2009.

Performing during the show in position 11, "Illusion" was not announced among the 10 qualifying entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final.

It was later revealed that Bulgaria placed sixteenth out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 7 points.

Prior to the 2009 contest, Bulgaria had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest four times since its first entry in.

The 2009 Bulgarian national final took place over two phases.

Be a Star was first phase of the national final format developed by BNT which determined the artist and song that would represent Bulgaria at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.

In the monthly final, the nine competing entries were voted upon by the public in order to select the top three that advanced to Bŭlgarskata pesen v „Evroviziya 2009”.

In the monthly final, the three entries that qualified to Bŭlgarskata pesen v „Evroviziya 2009” were selected exclusively by public televoting.

In the monthly final, the three entries that qualified to Bŭlgarskata pesen v „Evroviziya 2009” were selected exclusively by public televoting.