A new version of Petar Chernev’s song Zaklinanie, Spell was released to mark the singer’s 80^th birth anniversary – 7 October. Spell, which won first prize at the Golden Orpheus Pop Song Festival in 1975, has come to be perceived as Petar Chernev’s most iconic song. Now, the song (music by Petar Chernev, lyrics by Miryana Basheva) is making a comeback in a brand new arrangement – acoustic strings, piano and cajón, and the blend of the voices of the late singer himself and his daughter Yana Cherneva.  

Born on 7 October, 1943 in Vidin, Petar Chernev graduated from the Pop Music Department of the National Music Academy in the class of Irina Chmihova. And it was with her that Petar Chernev first performed on stage. His career, spanning the 1970s and 1980s, brought him a host of international awards, concerts, tours and recordings in a number of countries.

Petar Chernev’s daughter – Yana Cherneva – set foot on stage when she was just 4, with her father’s encouragement to perform to a live audience. Yana has played the piano and sung since she was a little girl. She graduated from university in Vienna and now lives with her family in the US, but frequently travels to Bulgaria.

The new arrangement of Spell is by Alex Nushev, and it lends a new kind of freshness while preserving the emotion the song conveys.

Editing by Dilyana Tracheva

Translated and posted by Milena Daynova