Badly patched-up performances that fell short of the audience's expectations marred the second round of the race for Bulgaria's runner in Eurovision 2006, Athens.

Twenty-four shortlisted songs rivaled in the semifinal of the competition Saturday night at a concert in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. Based on the quality shown in the live performance, a jury brought down the number of the songs to 12.

Indicatively, all of the better known and experienced singers who joined the race made it to the final round. Among them are Ani Lozanova ("I will burn you"), Stoyan Zahariev ("Karmic Love"), Mastilo ("Next to you"), the star from Bulgaria's "Star Academy" show Ivaylo Kolev ("Every Dream at Night"), rock band Big Mamma Scandal.

What the others showed was that there is much room for improvement before Bulgaria can select a competitive bidder for the Eurovision contest.

The need for improvement became even more obvious after the performances of the concert's foreign guests - the band "No Name" from Serbia and Montenegro, Christine Guldbransen from Norway and Fabrizio Faniello, who will get a second chance at winning the Eurovision Song Contest for Malta this year.

The decisive round of the race will take place on March 11, when the twelve finalists will perform their songs to collect SMS support from viewers.

Last year the Bulgarian participation in the spectacle was marred by a vote-rigging scandal. The country's representative band, Kaffe, were accused by other Bulgarian contestants of generating sms votes through specially bought SIM cards. The scandal broke during the live gala concert in Sofia when the winners were announced.

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