EuroBGvision 2008 was the national final format developed by BNT in order to select Bulgaria's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, aiming to showcase local and amateur talents. All shows took place at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, hosted by Dragomir Draganov, Aksiniya Chenkova, Dani Georgiev and Niki Iliev.
Format
The competition featured three quarter-finals on 26 October, 23 November and 21 December 2007, a semi-final on 26 January 2008 and the final on 23 February 2008. Before each quarter-final, three weekly presentation shows were held, featuring between five and eight songs in each. Three advanced from each quarter-final to the semi-final exclusively by public televoting. In addition to that, BNT selected wildcard acts from the final out of the remaining non-qualifying acts from the quarter-finals and from newly submitted songs before the end of 2007. Eighteen songs competed in the semi-final and the top nine qualified by the votes of an expert jury. Twelve songs consisting of the nine semi-final qualifiers alongside three pre-qualified finalists competed in the final, where public televoting exclusively determined the winner.
Competing entries
Artists and songwriters were able to submit their entries until 26 September 2007. BNT received 79 entries, with fifteen being disqualified due to breaking competition rules. The list of competing artists and songs were released on 27 September 2007. BNT received 47 entries during the additional submission period for the semi-final wildcards.
Quarter-final 1
19 songs were presented over three weekly presentation shows aired between 7 and 21 October 2007. The first quarter-final took place on 26 October 2007 where all nineteen songs competed. The top three entries determined by public televoting advanced to the semi-final.
Quarter-final 2
20 songs were presented over three weekly presentation shows aired between 3 and 18 November 2007. The second quarter-final took place on 23 November 2007 where all twenty songs competed. The top three entries determined by public televoting advanced to the semi-final.
Quarter-final 3
17 songs were presented over three weekly presentation shows aired between 2 and 16 December 2007. The third quarter-final took place on 21 December 2007 where all seventeen songs competed. The top three entries determined by public televoting advanced to the semi-final.
Semi-final
The semi-final took place on 26 February 2008. Eighteen songs consisting of the nine quarter-final qualifiers alongside nine wildcard entries competed and the top nine entries as determined by an expert jury advanced to the final. Stoyan Royanov qualified for the final but was later disqualified due to his song "Sombero" having been performed on 1 June 2007. As a result of this, Vlado & Svetlio replaced him in the final.
Final
The semi-final took place on 23 February 2008. Twelve songs consisting of the nine semi-final winners alongside three pre-qualified entries competed and the winner was determined by public televoting.
At Eurovision
In previous years, if a country placed in the top 10 countries in the final they automatically qualified to the final of the next contest. Had this rule remained for the 2008 contest, Bulgaria would have directly qualified for the final. However, a change in rules due to the large intake of countries participating in the contest meant that only five countries, the host country and the Big 4 countries, would automatically qualify to the final. As such, Bulgaria were forced to compete in one of the two semi-finals of the 2008 contest in Serbia. Bulgaria took part in the second semi-final on 22 May 2008 performing 12th, following Croatia and preceding the Denmark. They came 11th with 56 points failing to qualify to the Grand Final.
