Bulgaria participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "If Love Was a Crime" written by Borislav Milanov, Sebastian Arman, Joacim Bo Persson and Poli Genova. The song was performed by Poli Genova, who had previously represented Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011 where she failed to qualify to the final with the song "Na inat". In November 2015, the Bulgarian broadcaster Bulgarian National Television (BNT) announced that they would be returning to the Eurovision Song Contest after a two-year absence following their withdrawal in 2014 due to financial limitations. On 19 February 2016, the broadcaster announced that Poli Genova had been selected to compete at the 2016 contest in Stockholm, Sweden. The song that Genova competed with, "If Love Was a Crime", was also internally selected and was presented to the public on 21 March 2016.

Bulgaria participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with the song "Samo shampioni" written by Elitsa Todorova and Kristian Talev. The song was performed by Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov, having previously represented Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007 where they placed fifth with the song "Water". In February 2013, the Bulgarian broadcaster Bulgarian National Television (BNT) announced that Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov had been selected to compete at the 2013 contest in Malmö, Sweden. The broadcaster organised the national final Bŭlgarskata pesen v „Evroviziya 2013” in order to select the song that Elitsa and Stoyan competed with. Three songs were selected to participate in the national final, held on 3 March 2013, where "Kismet" emerged as the winning song following the combination of votes from a five-member jury panel and a public televote. The song was withdrawn on 11 March 2013 after failing to secure its copyrights with its apparent songwriter Jonatan Tesei and replaced with runner-up "Samo shampioni".