In this edition of 80 Years in 80 Weeks we go back to 1970, and the iconic pop song of Emil Dimitrov Moya Strana, Moya Balgaria (My Country, My Bulgaria). In 1970 he wrote the music of the song and devoted it to his son. The arrangement was made by renowned songwriter Mitko Shterev. The Bulgarian National Radio Golden Archives keep a recording of the iconic piece in the rendition of Emil Dimitrov with the Blue-White Band.

For a while My Country, My Bulgaria was banned because communist censors saw in it some kind of bourgeois influence and a hints for emigration. Late Emil Dimitrov once said that the authors of the song had been accused of having created it for the Bulgarian emigrants. He submitted the song for participation in the Golden Orpheus International Pop Music Festival in Sunny Beach on the Black Sea but the rules of the competition were changed and he did not receive any prize.

It is curious that originally, the song was recorded with French-language lyrics. It was released in France with the title Monica and became popular there. Following a string of successful concerts in Paris and with good chances of making a career there, Emil Dimitrov decided to return to communist Bulgaria. Émigré Hristo Kourtev, President of the International Academy of Arts in Paris once said that many of Emil's songs were appreciated and demanded for remakes by singers from Belgium, Holland, Germany, Morocco and Lebanon. In this way Emil Dimitrov became the first Bulgarian member of the Union of French Composers and began receiving royalty payments from across the world. However, the doors of the Union of Bulgarian Composers remained firmly shut for him because he had no academic training in music. Apart from France he was a pop star in the Soviet Union and appeared before packed halls and even stadiums of admirers.

In the course of his long creative career, Emil Dimitrov received many distinctions and prizes and had millions of fans. He wrote ten hits that entered European charts. He was born on 23 December 1940 to a family of illusionists. He travelled a lot with his parents and fell in love with the stage. Dimitrov studied at the National Theater and Film Academy. In 1962 he premiered his song Arlekino, the start of his glamorous career. At the Golden Orpheus pop music contest in 1975 Russian star Alla Pugacheva sang that song and snatched the Grand Prix, the beginning of her way to stardom.

From the year 2000 until his death in 2005 Emil Dimitrov gave up music because of poor health. He wrote more than 400 songs and arrangements were made by leading composers including Mitko Shterev, Moris Aladzhem, Alexander Iosifov, Nayden Andreev and others.

In 2012 the Bulgarian National Radio jointly with the Emil Dimitrov Foundation produced a CD presenting the greatest hits of the singer composed and performed by him. Though his music he spanned a bridge between Europe's East and West. In one of his last interviews Emil said that the love he got from his audiences would never be enough and that he doubted his songs would be remembered after his death. Well, he was not right because the king of the Bulgarian pop music will be remembered forever.

I did not sleep for so many nights, 
I walked so many roads 
To come back. 
I sang so many songs, 
I suffered so many torments 
To come back. 
In my beautiful country 
My mother, my father and my wife 
To embrace. 
There, under the sky of my home 
My child is waiting 
For my return.

My country, my Bulgaria, 
My love, my Bulgaria, 
My sadness, my Bulgaria, 
Love always makes me come back to you.

English Daniela Konstantinova