Eurovision 2026 ended in Vienna with a surprise for many - Bulgaria took the award with Dara, an entry that wasn't among the early bookmakers' favourites, but found a way to win both the audience and the jury. The 70th edition of the contest, and the first win for our neighbouring Balkan country.

Top 5 - Bulgaria, Israel, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine. The Balkan presence in the top 10 is striking: Greece sixth, Albania tenth, Croatia twelfth. It shows a trend that has been building over the last few years - Eastern and South-Eastern Europe is finally moving into the real centre of the contest, not just as numbers in the crowd.

For Serbia and Lavina with the song Kraj mene - the Vienna audience applauded her, but she didn't crack the top 13. Poetically put: a fine performance; prosaically - not enough points. That's not a disgrace, it's statistics. Eurovision has 38 countries, and being in the middle half means something.

Macedonia is absent again. For six years now the country has not been competing, with an excuse that changes every season - financial, political, organisational. In the meantime, the neighbours compete, win, get huge international exposure. Bulgaria and Albania took their moment this year.

Israel in second place with 220 points is a story of its own. The contest has been carrying political weight for four years now because of the war in Gaza. Yet the high placing shows that both jury and audience separate the artistic from the political context - or that a part of them is consciously voting on a political message. Both readings have their own logic.

As for next year's host: Bulgaria. Sofia or Plovdiv will face the logistical challenge of staging a mega-event. All our eyes next year will be turned south - exactly 200 kilometres from Skopje.