All Kinds Of Everything
The Irish Eurovision Website
 
Home Albania Andorra Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia-Herz Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Georgia Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Israel Latvia Lithuania FYR Macedonia Malta Moldova Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom

[]

      BULGARIA      

Song : "DJ Take Me Away"
Performer : Deep Zone & Balthazar
Music & lyrics : Dian Savov

Running Order : #12 in the second semi-final 

Audio file
Preview video
Live performance

THIS YEAR'S ENTRY

After two unsuccessful attempts to qualify from the semi-finals, Bulgaria not only reached the final show in 2007 in Helsinki, but also managed a Top 5 finish. Consequently, with interest in the contest now on the increase in Bulgaria, the national broadcaster BNT decided to have one of the most lengthy selections of the year. Aseries of none quater finals started in early October and were followed by a semi-final on January 26th, before we finally got to the twelve song national final which was staged in Sofia on February 23rd. The winning entry was chosen by a televote. In one of the closest results in this years selections Deep Zone & Balthazar and "DJ Take Me Away" won by only .1% (one vote in a thousand).

The Deep Zone Project was formed in 2000 by three musicians, DJ’s and studio engineers, DJ Dian (Dian Savov, the writer of "DJ Take Me Away"), Rossko (real name Rosen Stoev), Luybomir Savov (Dian’s father), who are recognised in Eastern Europe for their talent for song writing and making club anthems. After the release of their debut album "Ela Izgeiin" 2002, Deep Zone Project were nominated in five categories at the 2002 MM TV Music Awards. They won the award for best song with their track "Ela Izgrei" which was massive hit around the Balkans. In the next year 2003 they left the MM TV Awards Ceremony with another award - their track "Without Caffeine" won the Best Club Track of the Year.

In 2005, The Deep Zone Project made their first attempt to get tothe Eurovision Song Contest, however their song "The Dance Of The World", finished 12th and last in the first Belgarian national final.  

Soon afer, their collaborations with DJ Balthazar took the group to another dimension with their massive national club tours "Welcome To The Loop" and "Red Line" (each with 20 dates), which gathered an audience of more than 30,000 people. 

Since 2006 Deep Zone's songs have featured the vocal talents of Joanna Dragneva, who was born in Sofia in 1987. From an early age Joanna discovered that she was born for music and television. At age ten, she started studying at the Lyubomir Pipkov Bulgarian National Music School. At the moment, she studies at the Pancho Vladigerov National Music Academy in Sofia, specialising in percussion and pop & jazz singing. Joanna has also played percussion at the Sofia Youth Philharmonic and the American Symphonic Orchestra. 

As well as being the lead singer of the Deep Zone Project, Joanna has also been anchor of  the "Bon-Bon" TV show at Bulgarian National Television (BNT). Joanna was backing vocal of the Bulgarian pop stars Georgi Hristov, Nely Rangelova, Krum, and others. In 2005, she became the presenter of the "Melo TV Mania" show on BNT, and from 2006 Joanna has been a reporter on the "Everybody in front of the TV screen" show of BNT.

In 2007, the Depp Zone Project  released their single " DJ, Take Me Away", a collaboration with DJ Balthazar. The song has reached #2 in MTV Europe’s World Chart Express and due to its massive successful was always the favourite to respresent Bulgaria in this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Balthazar started DJ'ing in 1998 and now he is known as one of the most respected and popular DJs and producers in Bulgaria. He has performed at every major club in his country as well as on many big raves and various radio and TV shows. His international gigs have taken him to nearly twenty European countries including the U.K., Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Malta and Cyprus, to name a few.

Very often he plays at special events alongside other well known and respected DJ's or live acts. Balthazar is also owner of the Renesanz agency, with which he promotes numerous parties and books foreign house and techno DJ's for selected clubs and events. Four times a year Renesanz organises big raves for more than 2000 people.

With this, Balthazar has become one of the biggest promoters in electronic music in Bulgaria. Since 2003 he has been producing music with his studio partner JackRock and they have so far released more than fifty tracks and remixes on different labels. Balthazar's own style varies between groovy/minimal techno and electro/tribal/progressive house, always corresponding with the newest records on the scene. Usually his sets are quite energetic and technically perfect.

Bulgaria's entry is one of the boomakers favourites to qualify from the second semi-final and to finish in the Top 10 in the final, however fan polls have beeen rather less promising, yielding a mixed bag of results.

 

SAMPLE LYRICS

When the night falls down, I want you
DJ, please, take me away
And when the lights go down, I need you
DJ, please, take me away

 

BROADCASTER

RATINGS

Bookmakers

Eurovision history

Runnning order
Fan Poll
Webmaster

LAUNCH PAD

  1. The Deep Zone Project on MySapace
  2. DJ Balthazar's website
  3. Bulgarian television website
  4. The song's lyrics (from Diggiloo.net)
  5. Information on Bulgaria's selection

 

BULGARIA AT EUROVISION

First entry: 2004 
Number of previous entries: 3
Best result: 5th (2007)  
Worst result: Twice failed to qualify (2005,06)  

TEN YEAR FORM GUIDE

 

WEBMASTER REVIEW

I'm really not sure what to make of this. Anyone who remember's The Prodigy's 1992 hit "Out Of Space" will be familiar with this mixture of techno beats and reptitive cod reggae, but while it sounded frest and different then it sounds rather odd now. There are some good remixes as you might expect from a dance act, but the three minute Eurovision mix is very awkward and the vocals have been very shakey on some of the live performances. I'm going to go against the trend here and say that I don't think its a qualifier. 

REVIEWS

"Nice choice, but not the best I am afraid. I don’t like the combination of the techno intro and the slow chorus. But it is nice." - Atmantas (Greece)

"When this started I thought "Is it going to be like this all the way through because I dont like this?" but then it toned down and the lady with the nice voice started singing, so I dont think it turned out that bad! Catchy, different, memorable definately a contender to qualify but to win? No, I dont think so!" - Sam (South Africa / Russia)

"Oh, something really different. A good song for discos. It looks like an 80’s song featured with actual hiphop. "The Dark Horse"" - Yom (France)      

"Interesing combination : reggae - dance - techno sounds here, almost like three songs into one. The performance at the national final was surprisingly strong and the vocals ok, for a dance act. Could work very well, I mean, buring turn tables, wow ;)"- Paul Hutter (Germany)

"Please take her away, put her in a video arcade with all the rest of the strange noises and sound effects." - David Berlinger (Israel)

"And yet another strange entry from Bulgaria, but as last year was very succesful I don't see the reason why this entry should not be any less succesful.The final is certain and then, everything can happen. A possible winner if performed well." - Iggy (Croatia)

"I just love this – I welcome variety and it’s great to have a really good dance stomper in the competition. The marathon Bulgarian selection was, at times, excruciating and they definitely chose the right winner. The problem lies in the live performance, which is rather suspect, especially the vocals. This could be one of those songs that is only good on CD, but should easily qualify." - John Withers (U.K.)

"Fair play to Bulgaria for always trying something different. This stands out from the pack in the second semi and should qualify. With a late draw, who knows how far it it could go" - Ian Carson (Ireland)

It’s a little bit dance and a little bit watered-down reggae. It’s a bit of a mess. The overall sound is quite dated and very disappointing." - David Bridgman (U.K.)

"Not really my music usually, but as it stands here I love it! the instrumental parts are very rich and exiciting, with lots of fun with interesting beeps and "noises". The sung lines, in the reggae style, are maybe more "obvious", but it gives the song a more commerically accesible value. They have used some of the same ideas as last year. Very well done!" - Steinar (Norway))

"If you have only three minutes to make a statement, why use the first one of them to do some scratching and show off all the fancy noises you can do with you Casio? The last half of the song is so great it still comes out on the right side in the end!" - Alesta (Norway)

"Sounds great and excellent beat"- Etienne Micallef (Malta)