Bulgaria is sending for the first time ever a pop folk singer – Sofi Marinova, to represent the country at the Eurovision contest.

Marinova won Wednesday evening the nomination in competition with 11 other finalists in the Bulgarian edition of Eurovision.

Her song "Love Unlimited" was the choice of viewers. The Musical Academy was also part of the vote, but it ranked "Love Unlimited" 3rd, while their pick was the group "New 5" with their song "Chance for Better Life."

This was Marinova's 3rd shot at Eurovision – in 2005 she took part in the contest with popular late night talk show host and musician, Slavi Trifonov. However, just before the final, Trifonov cancelled their participation, declaring that the contest had been fixed. In 2007, Marinova – called the Roma Pearl, performed with rapper Ustata (The Mouth), but they failed to win.

The singer said she was very happy she is number one this time.

Marinova performs the song in Bulgarian. She will represent Bulgaria in Baku on May 24 in the second semi-final in which 19 countries will take part – of them, 10 will go to the final on May 26.

This will be Bulgaria's 8th participation in the song contest – its biggest success came in 2007 when the song "Water" of Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankulov-Stundzhi was ranked 5th.

On August 25, 2011, the Bulgarian National Television, BNT, confirmed the country's participation in the contest.

The songs were nominated between September 9 and November 11, 2011 – the initial 60 were scaled down to 22, and later to 12 – selected by the Musical Academy and the viewers of BNT.

Azerbaijan's Eli and Nikki won the final of the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest. Bulgarian singer Polly Genova and her song "Na Inat" ("In Defiance") failed to make it to the Eurovision finals in Dusseldorf, Germany.