It is that time of the year again when the excitement of the coming festive season mounts with every passing day. But the smiles, the hugs, the gifts at Christmas time would ring hollow without… music.

One of Mary Boys Band’s most emblematic songs, The Most Precious Gift, was aired for the first time, live, from the BNR’s Studio No. 1, the national radio’s concert studio, in November 2011. The story of this song is very personal for the band’s vocalist Maria Murafchieva, and the message she is sending is to the person dearest to her heart – her husband Miroslav during a time that was difficult for him and for the family, and which is now happily over.

“Anyone hearing the song can see, in their mind’s eye, what the festive atmosphere is like, the lights, and, what matters most – the way people’s eyes light up. The person next to us is the most precious thing in our lives. They say that no one is indispensable, but that is not true! Every person is indispensable, every person is invaluable and needs to be protected, cared for, loved. And we must do our best, if someone is precious to us, to keep them by our side. The most precious gift are the people around us.”

Mary remembers that the first person to have heard the song was music producer Ana-Maria Tonkova who asked her to change the lyrics so that the song can be played at all times, not just at Christmas, as that would restrict its life-span to just one month of the year.

“We shouldn’t regard them as songs with bells and clichés. They should be something we want to see survive through the years,” the singer says. “That is my approach to every single song I write – I want it to be the best thing I am capable of at the given time. I would venture to say The Most Precious Gift is a good song, and I like it very much.”

Mary admits writing a Christmas song is not an easy thing and turns the conversation to the fact there are so few festive songs in the Bulgarian language that are worthwhile.

“There is always the risk of sinking to utter clichés. If the lyrics are full of common or garden phrases they would never touch people’s hearts. Songwriters have to be guided by the idea they are doing something important, something that matters to every person, always. It is so difficult to find an original message you want to convey that people can identify with.”

Mary will celebrate 30 years on stage with a concert on her birthday – 10 February – in Sofia’s Bulgaria hall.

“I have been treading the streets of music for 30 years,” she says with a smile. “If a person wants to achieve something, they should be prepared for a marathon, not for a short-distance sprint. They should know that hard work and perseverance do not yield fruit right away, but that sooner or later they will.”

She says she hopes the concert hall will be full of people who appreciate this dedication through the years.

Concise titles and lyrics that reach out to people’s hearts are Mary Boys Band’s trademark, as are their songs’ catchy tunes. The messages they convey are particularly suited for expressing our feelings for the people closest to us. And Happy Days is a wish the band extend to all of their fans every time they perform on stage.