SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) \u2014 Hundreds of cheering fans waving Bulgarian flags welcomed Eurovision Song Contest winner Dara upon her return home on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Visibly tired but smiling, the 27-year-old singer arrived at Sofia\u2019s Vasil Levski Airport waving the Eurovision trophy. Bulgaria’s major television stations made changes to their regular programs to air live coverage from the airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis award marks the beginning of my future international career,\u201d Dara said.<\/p>\n
The singer won the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna on Saturday with her infectious party anthem \u201cBangaranga,\u201d giving the southeast European country its first-ever victory in the competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have done something great for Bulgarian music, and I hope this sends a message that Bulgaria\u2019s performers and artists deserve stronger support,\u201d Dara said.<\/p>\n
She said that Bulgaria is \u201can exceptionally talented nation that will continue to receive more and more attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dara, whose real name is Darina Yotova, beat 24 other competitors during Saturday\u2019s grand final of the European pop music competition. Her song\u2019s infectious beats and tightly choreographed dance routine proved a hit with both national juries in participating countries and viewers around the world, whose votes together decide the winner.<\/p>\n
Sofia Mayor Vassil Terziev was among the officials at the airport. Terziev said that the capital city is ready to host the next edition of the European song contest in 2027 when Bulgaria will mark the 20th anniversary of joining the European Union.<\/p>\n
The Balkan country\u2019s political leaders joined the outburst of national pride.<\/p>\n
Parliamentary speaker Mihaela Dotsova called Dara’s win an \u201cinspiration for the nation,\u201d while President Iliana Yotova said that it was a \u201ctriumph for Bulgaria\u201d and Prime Minister Rumen Radev proclaimed it \u201ca victory with global resonance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) \u2014 Hundreds of cheering fans waving Bulgarian flags welcomed Eurovision Song Contest winner Dara upon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[966,28317,15,28318,502,503,11632,11629,499,11630,501,11631,28319,25239,11162,12780],"class_list":{"0":"post-45407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-europe","8":"tag-bulgaria","9":"tag-bulgaria-eurovision-song-contest-winner-dara","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-iliana-yotova","12":"tag-package-100024-ap-online","13":"tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","14":"tag-package-100923-member-choice-lifestyles-option","15":"tag-product-30594-lifestyles-formerly-weekly-features","16":"tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","17":"tag-product-31388-premium-entertainment","18":"tag-product-32502-ap-online-europe-news","19":"tag-product-33328-ap-premium-entertainment-other","20":"tag-product-33329-ap-premium-entertainment-tv","21":"tag-product-33332-ap-premium-entertainment-celebrities","22":"tag-rumen-radev","23":"tag-sofia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}