On 6 October the open-air stage of the Boris Gardens in Sofia welcomed the fans of Bulgarian pop music. The audience revisited the greatest hits of the 1960s in brand new arrangements. This has become possible owing to singer Rumyana Kotseva and the students from her vocal studio for pop jazz singing.

“The event went under the motto The Bulgarian Evergreens. The idea came to us the moment when my students said they wanted to sing in English. The reason, according to me, is that they do not have enough knowledge of the achievements of Bulgarian pop music over the last half a century. So, I decided to run a project jointly with my students asking them to present the cream of cream of Bulgarian popular music. The project is carried out as part of Sofia’s bid for European Capital of Culture 2019. 

Singer and pedagogue Rumyana Kotseva believes that a single concert can hardly provide enough time to feature all great hits since the 1960s. She hopes that the project will continue with concerts that focus on the top achievements of the 1970s, 1980s etc. Before the concert on 6 October Kotseva introduced her students to veteran singers with a major contribution into Bulgarian pop music – Irina Chmihova, Margaret Nikolova, Mimi Nikolova and Margarita Radinska. Apart from Sofia Municipality the project has been supported by Studio Artes music production house, Dr. Petar Beron 1926 Community Club in Sofia and Daniela Marinova, founder of Zornitsa Popova Foundation.

Now we are going to listen to one of the songs included in the concert of Bulgarian evergreens from 1960s. It is The Sea Girl Varna in the rendition of 14-year-old Simona Georgieva, one of the students of Rumyana Kotseva. It was composed by Dimitar Vultchev on lyrics by Vladimir Bashev. It was sung for the first time back in 1962 by Rossitsa Nikolova.

All songs in the concert highlighting the Bulgarian evergreens of the 1960s were arranged and played in an acoustic version by Rosen Parlapanov (piano) and Apostol Apostolov (saxophone). Listen to Rusana Hristova with Blue Night composed by Emil Georgiev on lyrics by Nayden Vultchev. Originally the song was performed back in 1964 by Kiril Semov.

The project created on the Bulgarian evergreens by Rumyana Kotseva seeks to introduce the Bulgarian teenagers to the beginnings of Bulgarian pop music. The songs are presented in new arrangements in tune with present-day music tastes. Listen My Song, My Love sung by Teodora Georgieva. In 1967 it became part of the repertoire of pop diva Yordanka Hristova. The song was composed by pop music classic Yosif Tsankov on lyrics by Dimitar Vassilev. 

Translated by Daniela Konstantinova