"Bulgarians, Champions" is the third album by Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankulov - Stundzhi. It was released four years after "Water” - the CD that bears the name of their most popular song. This song successfully presented Bulgaria at the Eurovision 2007 international music contest. The duo started their way into the new millennium, combining melodies of the Bulgarian folklore with variety of percussion rhythms. Both musicians are linked to traditional Bulgarian culture, but perform in various other styles. The new album of Elitsa and Stundzhi includes a total of nineteen pieces, while guest musicians in this album are more than ten, including Strings Quartet, Arabel von Karajan and others. Among them is also bagpipe player Petyo Kostadinov, who can be heard in the song "Light," music and lyrics – folk; arrangement - Kliment Dichev and Stoyan Yankulov.

 Here is what Elitsa told us about the new album: “The album is dedicated to all Bulgarians who left a mark on our history. These are champions not only in sports but in all spheres of life. I am very glad that we were able to give an opportunity to a few young artists who are guest musicians in the album. Working with young people is very refreshing as they are carriers of new ideas. One of our guests is beat boxer Alexander Deyanov - Skiller - known in Europe as "the fastest mouth." DJ Surbahar and DJ Clement also participate in the album. We were looking to achieve club sound but there are some very lyrical acoustic songs too. The “Pusta Mladost” folk song from the Pirin region turned out great. We perform it together with two young men from Blagoevgrad - brothers Martin and Kristian Pishtolski. Besides singing, they also play the drums."

 “In this album we also collected several remixes of older songs,” Stoyan Yankulov says. “We had an idea to create this album a long time ago, immediately after we released "Water." We wanted to dedicate it to Bulgarian successes in sports. "Bulgarians Champions" actually applies to each one of Bulgarians, who manage to survive in these difficult times. The album is dedicated to those Bulgarians who chose to stay in this country. As for the other things that I do, I really love variety in terms of style and I am constantly looking for it. I have been working with famous Colombian musician Juan Garcia - Herreros. He has performed with Elton John, Christina Aguilera, and a great number of famous jazz musicians. He has a jazz formation in which I perform too. We are constantly traveling and recently recorded a new album. I continue working with the Big Band of Brass Association. Together with folk musicians Peyo Peev, Nedialko Nedialkov and Angel Dimitrov we also played at a folk festival in Italy. In Sofia I was part of the Bulgarian formation that accompanied the concert of Bobby Kimball – the front man of Toto.”

English version: Alexander Markov