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The music career of Bulgarian pop singer Stanislav Slanev-Stanley

Photo: BGNES
The music career of the renowned Bulgarian pop singer Stanislav Slanev-Stanley started in the 1980’s when he became the soloist of the Tangra band. Back then, between 1984 and 1986 was the best period of the Tangra rock band. It was founded in 1976 in Sofia by Konstantin Markov and Alexander Petrunov, who bore the nickname Sasho Grivnata(the bracelet). The band had several front men during its long history- Vasil Naidenov, Chocho Vladovski and Vili Kavaldzhiev. With the appointment of Stanley as soloists of the band in 1984, another period in the new wave style started. Some of the songs created during the 1980’s gained huge popularity. These were “The lead soldier”, “Juliet” and “Till the last breath”.

The creative career of Stanley started in the Tact and Parallel 42 bands. He graduated the pop department of the Sofia Music Academy. After he stopped singing in Tangra band he became a front man of Sprint band. In 1990 he started his single career. He managed to come up with a unique and specific music style which made him different to the rest of the Bulgarian pop singers at that time. In 1990 he also released his debut album entitled “The Hobo’s Tears”. Two years later in 1992 he released a music project named “The path to church”. The words of this piece were written by Natalia Simeonova.

Stanley was awarded singer of the year in 1992 and 1994 by the National Rock Academy. He released the song “La La La” at that time. This song helped him become part of the world music history, being part of the album Europodium 92 along with Annie Lenox, U2 and Zuccero. Stanley likes to experiment in his music pieces where he combines folk and rock elements and uses the specific sounds of some folk instruments. At the Golden Orpheus music festival in 1998 he was awarded the 3rd prize for his authors’ song “The man from the neighborhood”.

Stanley continued his active creative career during the 1990’s and released in 1994 an album entitled “What is your name”. The singer works for theatre productions such as “Storm” in the Konstantin Velichkov Drama Theatre in the town of Pazardzhik. As a result, he was nominated for the Askeer Theatre Awards. The music to the” Night of the Cardinal” play at the Tears and Laughter Theatre, was also written by Stanley.

He also participated in his colleagues’ pop projects. He wrote music for the “Colorful album” of the pop singer Irra, released in 2002, as well as music for Ludmila Slaneva - Loko. He wrote the music for her CD “You can do it”, released in 2005 and was the author of the arrangement of this album

In 2004 Stanley released a mixed album entitled “The best” where he plays his greatest music hits. After a long pause he returned to the music stage with his latest song “The comeback” where the music was again written by him. The words were written by Dani Rashev. There is a video to this song to the arrangement of Nikolay Mutafchiev. Thus, Stanley will celebrate 30 years since the start of his music career. On this occasion he is planning a massive concert in the accompaniment of a music philharmonic orchestra. In the end of 2012, the renowned musician organized a club music tour along with his friends from Ostava band in seven Bulgarian towns- Burgas, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Blagoevgrad, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora and Gabrovo. Some of the songs performed at this tour were: “Obsessed”, “The Path to church”, “What is your name”, “Old Perfume”, “Juliet”, “Be Yourself”, “Let us fly above the town” as well the joint piece called “Sunflower fields”.

The concert in Sofia was held in acoustic version. Stanley performed on stage along with Georgi Georgiev who plays guitar in Ostava band and Mihail Shishkov on the piano. The musicians played 2 separate music sets with the “Best of Stanley and Ostava band”.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov
По публикацията работи: Sibila Lilova


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