03

#03 Sofia, Bulgaria
The Third edition of Luna's and Pepz's Eurovision Song Contest took place in Sofia, Bulgaria, following their victory in Kazan, Russia won by Preyah with her song "POJAR".

The contest will be organized by the Bulgarian Broadcast Union BNT.

Forty-six countries will compete in Bulgaria with Åland Island's returns after their absence in Kazan, while Albania, Andorra, Denmark, Israel and Turkey won't be returning to the contest after they participated in the second edition. Andorra has previously planned to participate but withdrew due to the HOD decided to withdrew from the contest due to unknown reasons. Austria and Libya have decided that they won't return to the contest. They last participated on the first edition in Frankfurt Am Main, Germany.

South Korea will be debuting for the first time in Bulgaria along with Croatia, Jordan, Iceland, Morocco, New Zealand, Slovakia and Tunisia.

Countries will compete in two semi-finals while Spain, San Marino, Belgium, Kazakhstan, Poland, and host country Bulgaria will automatically qualify to the Grand Final, due to them scoring top 6 in a previous contest.

Venue
On June 6th 2021, It has been decided by the Bulgarian broadcasting Union that Sofia will host the contest.

The contest will take place in Armeets Arena which was originally called Sofia Arena. It is known to host championships for example the 2012 European Taekwon-do ITF that was hosted in May that year. Aerobic Gymnastics World Championships also took place that year in June.

Junior Eurovision Song Contest was also hosted in the Arena back in November of 2015. It was the first time that the Junior Eurovision Song Contest has taken place in Bulgaria.

Sofia
Sofia which in Bulgarian is София (Sofiya) is the Capital of Bulgaria and Bulgaria's largest city. The city is located in the western side of the country on the eponymous valley at foot of Vitosha Mountain. The city was established and built on the west of Iskar River.

Bulgaria
Bulgaria (България) officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It lies on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. Bulgaria covers a territory of 110,994 square kilometres (42,855 sq mi), and is the sixteenth-largest country in Europe. Sofia is the nation's capital and largest city; other major cities are Plovdiv, Varna and Burgas.

Semi-final 1
San Marino, Kazakhstan and  Poland will also vote in this Semi-Final.

Semi-final 2
Belgium, Spain and  Bulgaria will also vote in this Semi-Final.

Other LEBU Countries
Andorra - On the 28th of May. Originally confirmed their participation, Andorra will be withdrawing from the contest due to unknown explanation from the Andorran hod who has claimed that they are not interested of competing after previously confirmed the country's participation.

Austria - ORF has confirmed Austria's non participation for LPESC 03. ORF hopes that the country will return next edition strong.

Estonia - Originally confirmed its participation but ended up withdrawed due to financial issues in the broadcast. The entry for Estonia was revealed to be Jozels with his song "Milka". Israel - KAN has stated that Israel won't participate due to lack of Interests in the country. KAN hope they will return stronger then ever. Libya - Libyan broadcast has confirmed their non-participation due to financial issues in the broadcast.

Associate LPEBU Members South Korea - The LPEBU has announced that South Korea would be allowed to compete next edition.