EXCLUSIVE | Bulgaria and Montenegro will not participate in Eurovision 2023!

We can exclusively reveal that both Bulgaria and Montenegro will not take part in the 67th Eurovision Song Contest, that is set to take place in Liverpool, in May.

The main reason behind RTCG’s (Radio and Television of Montenegro) decision not to participate seems to be the latter’s financial difficulties. It is not the first time that RTCG has withdrawn from ESC due to financial difficulties. They did so in 2010, 2011, 2020 (RTCG announced that it would not participate before the Contest was cancelled due to Covid-19), and 2021.

The BNT’s (Bulgarian National Television) decision not enter the Contest seems to be the result of both BNT’s financial difficulties and the political uncertainty in the country. Bulgaria did not enter the Contest in 2014 and 2015 for similar reasons.

As of this time, only the following 34 countries have publicly confirmed their intentions to participate in the 2023 ESC:

Semi-finals (28 countries)

Albania
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belgium
Croatia
Cyprus
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
Georgia
Greece
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
Latvia
Lithuania
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
San Marino
Serbia
Slovenia
Sweden
Switzerland

Final (Big Five & Ukraine)

France
Germany
Italy
Spain
Ukraine
United Kingdom

Countries that took part in ESC 2022 but have not expressed any intention about ESC 2023

Armenia
Czech Republic
Moldova
North Macedonia

If the above four countries do not enter the Contest, ESC 2023 is set to become the ESC edition with the fewer participants since 2003. Semi-final(s) format was introduced in 2004 with just one semi-final, and was replaced with the two semi-finals’ setting in 2008 and onwards.

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the details about the upcoming ESC!