Beloved Singer Militsa Bozhinova Celebrates 66th Birthday with New Music and Summer Performances

On June 4, the beloved singer Militsa Bozhinova turns 66. Congratulations! The songs she has sung with “Tonica SV” are so many and she admits that she does not know the exact number of them, but one day she will count them. And her performances with the group, as well as her solo appearances, do not stop even now. On May 24, she was part of the concert in Veliki Preslav, on June 1 and 2 she participated in Igor Markovski’s project “Singing Artists” in the “Antique Theater” in Plovdiv and in “Tsaritsa Roza” in Kazanlak.

In the meantime, she had two concerts with “Tonika SV” and new appearances are coming this summer. As Militsa says: “Tonika” is two-thirds of my life and, thank God, we work with the band, we have kept our voices and as soon as we get on stage, the joint is done!”

The generation’s favorite artist tells Ladyzone how she will celebrate, how she will spend the summer and when she fell in love with polyphonic singing.

Militsa, how will you celebrate your birthday?

With family and closest friends. I don’t like to expand the circle of guests on June 4 itself, but subsequently I celebrate for a whole month with various friends and colleagues (laughs).

You are a cook, will you make the cake?

I will prepare everything else, but this time I will not make the cake, I will buy it. I admit that I am tired from recent trips.

How do you feel about this personal holiday?

I was always happy on my birthday and now I feel so, regardless of the years, which I am not worried about and I have never hidden them. I find nothing good in hiding a part of your life.

What is your most memorable birthday?

During the time I’ve been singing, and now it’s 45 years, 80 percent of the time on my birthday I’ve always had a concert and been on stage. In the last few years, for obvious reasons due to the pandemic, this has not been the case. But the happy thing is that we still fill the big halls with audiences – a sign that she needs our songs, which have been sung for three generations now. And, of course, the main credit goes to Stefan Diomov, who made “Tonica SV” look with his songs. I’ve been singing with this group for 43 years now.

What is your attitude towards gifts?

I enjoy absolutely everything, even if there is no gift! The greatest gift is the attitude of relatives and friends towards me. I am grateful that they will respect me on this day, that we will be together! I remember when I mentioned that I always went to concerts on my birthday, one performance with the Ensemble of GUSV in Petrich or Sandanski was some time ago. In those years, there was nowhere to get anything to treat myself to, and I bought at least 10 kilos of cherries (laughs), and some alcohol to cheer me up! Then my colleagues gave me a lot of interesting things – cute little cups, very funny underwear for that time and a horseshoe made of a donkey (laughs)! And it was a lot of fun…

What’s next for you musically?

We recently recorded two new songs by Stefan Diomov – “Adelina” and “You and Me”. They are in our typical style, which I say with pride, because there are few groups that have preserved their style over time, which is again thanks to Diomov’s work. They sing about love, and what else is it about (laughs)? On the project of Igor Markovski “Singing Artists” I recorded a duet with Orlin Goranov – “Quiet Fire”, with music by Momchil Kolev and lyrics by Kostadin Filipov. I also recorded a solo song for this project – “Adventure”, which is composed of music by Svetoslav Loboshki and lyrics by Kosyo Filipov. Together with Orlin Goranov, Orlin Pavlov, Margarita Hranova and Jacqueline Tarakchi, we made a new version of the song “One Bulgarian Rose”, which turned out to be very beautiful. At the concert in Kazanlak now, on June 2, we sang it and Nayden Valchev – the author of the text, who is 96 years old – came on stage with us. Concerts on Igor Markovski’s program continue until the end of the year all over the country, in Sofia it will be on November 23 at the NDK. I have performances coming up in the summer, and the concerts with “Tonika SV” start on August 2 and will last until the end of September.

Is there a song that is your song?

There is and it is not one… “Evening wind” – a song by Stefan Diomov, it touches me the most and expresses it as a voice and emotion. Mitko Shterev’s song from the film “My dear, my dear”, which I sing with Iliya Angelov, has not left the airwaves to this day, but was recorded in 1986. It has become an evergreen.

I call a Song exactly that which can be sung, everything else is one day… And I have never in my life just opened my mouth, in the sense of singing on playback. We are taught our generation to sing live. And we have gained a lot of experience, a huge school is my participation in the Ensemble of construction troops, which worked with an orchestra of eight people with conductor Nedko Troshanov. Then we rehearsed daily, which was a law for us. I’m taught that when I step on stage, I get tight and sing because people have come to have fun. The good thing is that the joy is mutual between the audience and us, the performers. In general, my life is music – I have been singing and playing the piano since I was 5 years old. My parents are financiers, but they both sang in the “Rodna Pesen” choir with conductor Mikhail Milkov. They took me to rehearsals with them and from then on I fell in love with polyphonic singing. It’s certainly no coincidence that I went on to sing with a band.

Summer is coming, what does this season bring you?

People usually associate summer with the sea, but this season is beautiful everywhere – both in the mountains and in the city… For me, summer gives me a special solar energy and I look forward to it, and I want it to last as long as possible. Especially now, when everything is in lush greenery, it gives an impetus to life, and also to love – why not (laughs)? I have experienced many funny stories, but now I am more happy about the smaller things that I used to go through. I’m happy when the sun shows up, when I see a beautiful plant or peaceful people, when I hear a nice song… But I’m also happy that I learned to create work for myself, even if it’s not specifically related to music. I like to challenge myself and try to do different things, even men’s work (laughs). I’m not uncomfortable with anything, I’m curious!

And where will you rest?

I don’t like to rest. Even if I go somewhere on vacation, I will still find some work. Inactivity is not my nature, because I am a Gemini, while one rests, the other works (laughs)!