Trio Bandûlgarka

Yanka Rupkina, Stoyanka Boneva, Eva Georgieva

Mari Stanku
Pilentse pee
Oy Yano, Yano
Taz vecher ne miy veselo
Snoshti sûm minal, kuzum Elenke
Yano, Yanke
Sedyankata e na razvala
Kavali, kavali
Tri byulbyula peyat
Drago mi e

Vida e rano ranila
Zheko ovtsete paseshe
Nauchil say dobri
Mnogo e Rada hubava
Oy varay, varay
V Pirina

We all know them for their songs. We have listened to their ringing Bulgarian voices at concerts, sounding from the recordings of Radio Sofia, from the albums, and more than once has the Bulgarian Television offered us the opportunity to see the smiles on their faces, the fire in their eyes which has been lit up in the Dobrudzha plain, in the Strandzha forests, or under the high peaks of the Pirin Mountains.

How did it all start? It started with the love for the folk song, which has survived through the centuries and rang one fine day when Eva Georgieva, Yanka Rupkina, and Stoyanka Boneva decided to form the "Bulgarka" trio which we all know so well. "Three Golden Coins" made this creative start and walked together with the folk song along the roads and paths of the country, reaching towns and villages, being among the industrious and hard-working people all the time. Haven't the three of them, after all, been born and bred in such typically Bulgarian families – working in the fields at daytime and sitting by the fire in the evenings, singing the songs which have stood the test of time, now clear and bright like a sunny day, now gloomy and dark like a summer cloud.

The trio has existed for a quarter of a century now. Their three voices are like a spring – crystal-clear and deep. Once they had said: "What we want is to make our three voices sound like one so that this voice might bring glory to the Bulgarian folk song." And they kept their word. There are songs like "Kalimanka," "Trûgnala e malka moma" (A maiden has set off), "Pozaspa li, Yagodo" (Have you fallen asleep, Yagodo) and a number of others known by heart and sung even by four- or five-years old children. It is great to sing songs to the people, to bring joy to them. Late in the evening after a concert they still stay in the concert hall, humming this or the other song which the people have already started singing on their way back from the concert.

The "Bulgarka" trio travels throughout Bulgaria; composers and poets help them in their noble ambition to find new songs, better and nattier than the previous ones, hidden in the old closets of time. I say "natty," as each one of the three singers adds something new to the song – color, a new string of sounds, artistry, or magic impact upon the listeners.

The trio travels on, at home and abroad alike. Their tours in the USSR, France, Syria, and Czechoslovakia are to be remembered forever. They sing the long-drawn songs and all of a sudden, much to the surprise of the audience, they break into a native tune.

That is what they are, these charming folk singers, these typical Bulgarian women. Eva brings her Dobrudzhan low, yet bright fire; then come Yanka with her Strandzha liveliness and Stoyanka with the echo from the Pirin lush meadows ...

I listen to their singing and it is as if they are here with me. They are singing and their songs are like a bird flying to the sun, taking us to that limpid and refreshing spring of the Bulgarian folk music. – Purvoleta Prokopova