Lyubka Rondova was a frequent guest at Radio Bulgaria. She used to say that after every interview she gets numerous calls and letters from all over the world. This year she would have turned 80, but she passed away in March. Friends and fans decided to share their own memories of the acclaimed folk singer.

Nikolay Ribarov is the man who has released all of Lyubka Rondova’s albums; he was also a close friend:

“She was a wonderful singer, very popular. I would like to go back to the way she selected and prepared her songs. Not just the original folklore. In her last years she plucked up the courage to compose music herself based on folklore lyrics, or text to go with an authentic melody. In this process she was really thorough - something few are capable of. It is difficult to find a song that will reach into the soul of listeners. Lyubka was highly educated, her whole life was connected with culture – not just as a folk singer but also in her work for government and public cultural institutions. I miss her a lot. She always had so much information to offer – she spoke and could read several languages. Now that she is gone, many people will probably want to record her songs.”

Nikolay Panayotov was a member of the Gotse Delchev folk song ensemble, where he met Lyubka Rondova. “We were close family friends, in her last years we talked every day,” he says and adds:

“Lyubka Rondova was outstanding as a performer of music from her native parts and a patriot. A person of great depths, her efforts were invariably aimed at preserving tradition. She was born in a part of the country that is now in Greece (Shestevo village near Kastoria) in lands that were then populated by ethnic Bulgarians. She left for the Czech Republic as a child-refugee and there graduated Slavic studies. Her family were reunited in Bulgaria and she joined the Gotse Delchev ensemble, she was its soloist and philologist. I had the good fortune to be close to her and I am thankful for that. Together with Nikolay Ribarov and some friends we are planning some interesting initiatives to honour her.”

“I met Lyubka Rondova in 2003,” says young folk singer Ventsislav Penev. “We had concerts together across Bulgaria. She would advise me to look for unrecorded material and include it in my repertoire. She would say that young people must perform songs that are not popular to make them hits because that is the way to develop as an original performer. She invited me to her home a little before her death, she wanted to talk. And again she insisted that I be very careful and pick authentic texts and melodies.”

Finally, here is Yulia Tsankova, Bulgarian National Radio folk show host for many years:

“She was someone that brought goodness and light. She has an outstanding voice, she sings with such tenderness with so much feeling. When I think about her or when I listen to her songs I often look up to the sky and imagine she is with us, giving us strength and love. Lyubka Rondova’s emblematic song was Smilyana. There are many girls by that name though they are probably not aware how much sunshine there is in that song, how much love.”

English version: Milena Daynova