The career of singer Snezhana Borisova from the so-called shoppe region (the region around Sofia) is truly remarkable, a career of creative quests and bold experiments, though she has never broken with the style of the authentic shoppe songs she has been performing ever since she was a child. She says they are “the perfect model that underpins everything else”.

This incredible diversity is there to be heard in the repertoire of the renowned singer: from the authentic shoppe sound, through polyphonic singing with the Philip Koutev national ensemble, the Bulgarka-Penev trio, the Lozenki quintet… right down to disco rhythms with Bolyari orchestra. Snezhana is also a voice in electronic music with the band Transformation and has performed in the shows Rebels and Are you ready with Neshka Robeva's company of rhythmic gymnasts. Her recordings for the soundtracks of the Italian-US co-productions “St. Paul” and “Julius Caesar”, the Italian “Black curtain” and “Lourdes” are no less of a creative surprise. Author of the music to all of these films is Carlo Siliotto.

Senzhana Borisova's talent as a singer, fine-tuned in her childhood in the village where she was born Lozen, later came out in bloom on the stages of San Remo, Paris, London and in concert with Goran Bregovic. After years of work in sound recording studios and on stage and all the stress and strain that go with it, the singer is now endeavouring to streamline her work. She is now leader of authentic local shoppe folklore groups, adding original pieces to their repertoire and helping them release their albums - an invaluable endeavor for keeping local memory alive and ensuring continuity in music.

“I had the good fortune of being born in a wonderful village near Sofia - Lozen - that has preserved its heritage to this very day,” Snezhana Borisova says. “All rites and rituals are practiced there - lazaruvane, St. Todor's day, Christmas traditions. I grew up in a family with sound traditions. Bulgarian folklore is my life. We must keep tradition alive if we don't want to lose our identity. When I joined the Philip Koutev national ensemble I became a professional singer. Until that time I was just a girl who knew and loved to sing the songs of my grandmothers and aunts. The ensemble was my professional school. Although I left it many years ago, I still feel as if I am part of it. I had the good fortune of working with the Koutev choir, with the singers who founded the ensemble. They were my idols, I had only seen them on television or heard them on the radio but they were so down-to-earth, so friendly. Each one of them has helped me at different times. When we were studying Thracian songs, I would turn to the Thracian singers for help or Rhodope songs - to the Rhodope singers. Now I am doing what they did for me back then - I help the girls get their voices working, work on their diction etc. The things I learnt with the ensemble are now a great help to me in my work. Together with Goran Bregovic I have performed on world stages. There I came to the realization that even if one tries to experiment, one must always preserve the authenticity of music. I have worked with world-famous musicians like Adriano Celentano, Zdravko Colic, Luciano Pavarotti was MC of the festival in San Remo; at the jazz festival in Montreux we got a standing ovation. There I realized I should cherish our songs, people loved them though they have to be presented to a latter-day public in a way that will make them easier to comprehend.”

As to the successful career of her young colleagues, Snezhana Borisova says:

“My young colleagues must track down authentic folklore instead of banking on familiar songs already interpreted by others. They must look to their own originality, a repertoire all their own. When I started experimenting in the 1990s many were critical. Colleagues would say to me: “What do you think you are doing, there is a well-trodden road”. I know that every single thing must evolve. In olden times singing accompanied any human activity, there was no television, no radio. In our day the authenticity of music must be preserved but it should be presented to audiences in a way that will be acceptable to the young people of today - in a modern rhythm and arrangement. The young must be creative, they must look to the authentic music handed down to us by our ancestors, because it carries the soul of the nation. I come from the shoppe region and I love the songs of my people. I shall remain true to them until my last breath.”

English version: Milena Daynova