Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2024 All Rights Reserved

Blagoevgrad hosts Francofolies festival, 17-18 July

БНР Новини

The Bulgarian edition of Francofolies, the international festival of contemporary French music was restored by Blagoevgrad municipality in 2015 after an interruption of close to 25 years. It is a satellite edition of the biggest forum of its kind that has taken place in La Rochelle, France since 1985, but also in Montreal in Canada, Spa in Belgium, in New York, Buenos Aires and in Berlin. The line-up in Bulgaria in 2015 included Patricia Kaas, Patrick Bruel, the Caravan Palace electro-swing band, DJ Bob Sinclair and many others.

This year, one of the best-loved French bands Nouvelle Vagueand young French singer Isabelle Geffroy, better known as ZAZ will be performing on the open-air stage in Blagoevgrad on 18 June. Admission is free to this second edition of Francofolies, Blagoevgrad municipality officials say; city hall is producer of the event.


Nouvelle Vague was set up in 2004 by Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux, both of them French jazz musicians. Here is what Marc Collin said for Radio Bulgaria:

Marc Collin“Nouvelle Vague is a music project in which the hits of the 1980s are arranged with a strong Brazilian Bossa Nova influence. Our first covers are punk and new wave; actually we had two options in terms of style - to keep the original version or to play around with the song so that even the original authors say they take their hats off to us. As to the project's name - actually nouvelle vague, Bossa Nova, new wave mean exactly the same thing in different languages,” says Marc Collin.

In 2005 their cover of the song I Melt with Youwas used in the soundtrack of the movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith and in Grey's Anatomy. Their biggest hits include Guns of Brixton, Dance with Me, Love Will Tear Us Apart. The punk-Brazilian music-cinema formula has proved a success, as Nouvelle Vague have sold over 700,000 albums and have travelled the world to give concerts.

What makes this band different is that they use a rotating cast of female vocalists. They are coming to Bulgaria with two of them - Liset Alea and Melanie Pain. In their latest studio album Couleurs de Paristhe musicians pay tribute to French music of the 1980s. In Blagoevgrad they will be performing a mix of French and English songs, with a style of performance that they hope will be an unforgettable experience for the audience.

English version: Milena Daynova




Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Iskrena Yordanova – a distinguished musician who has dedicated her heart to Baroque music

For thirty years now, Bulgarian violinist Iskrena Yordanova has been living in Lisbon. Everything she does as a musician is related to Baroque music. She has devoted much of her time to discovering ancient manuscripts, which she brings back to life with..

published on 11/6/24 10:44 AM

Kottarashky with 2 events in Berlin: a premiere of the film Balkan Black Box and a concert

Kottarashky is one of the most intriguing musicians to have appeared on the Bulgarian music scene in the first decade of the 21 st century. The man behind the stage name is Nikola Gruev, and his work is an ongoing genre-blending experiment. He is..

published on 11/5/24 8:23 AM

A concert of Japanese taiko drums group will delight music lovers in Sofia

Lovers of Japanese music will be able to enjoy a concert of traditional Japanese taiko drums performed by the band Wadaiko-Sai from Japan . The concert will be held in the capital's Bulgaria Hall at 7 p.m. as part of the Days of Japanese Culture in..

published on 11/5/24 5:05 AM