Maria Ilieva is a singer with extraordinary vitality, charm and a beautiful smile. She is not only loved by the young generations for her numerous hits, but the singer is already an established producer who discovers young talents in her genre – pop music. Maria has many albums released and has been working on a large number of music projects with chamber and symphonic orchestras, in clubs and at festivals in this country and abroad. She has partnered onstage to stars like Simply Red, Scorpions, Gipsy Kings, Zucchero etc. She has sung in the Olympia Hall in Paris and at the MEO Arena in Lisboa.

Maria has been touring outside Bulgaria for a second year in a row. She will tour around some of the bigger cities of the USA and Canada. Two of her events in Florida are now in the past, along with ones in Atlanta and Chicago. San Francisco will be able to enjoy Maria’s performance on February 13. On February 5 she will be in Toronto and in Montreal on the next day. The singer works with Georgi Yanev /guitar/, Martin Tashev /trumpet/vocals/ and Mr. Moon /programming, keyboard, percussions/.

We find Maria Ilieva in Miami, in the next morning after her concert. She was tired, but happy. The singer said that some of the ticket money was spared for the support of the new Bulgarian school in Miami. It is now attended by 40 kids and our community there tries to show and develop love for Bulgarian traditions and folklore, art and culture. Here is more from Maria herself in an exclusive interview for RB:

“I feel happy to talk to you, especially after these two concerts in Tampa and Miami as I am still very excited. Perhaps happiness is the right word to describe my mood at the moment. I am happy and grateful for being able to meet those who have managed to make their dreams come true. At the same time I feel that they have preserved their love for what’s Bulgarian in terms of culture and more specifically – for our music. I felt that sweet nostalgia to touch something Bulgarian abroad and perhaps that made it all even stronger. The clubs were overcrowded and I was really impressed, as there are no large Bulgarian communities in those two cities. Not only Bulgarians attended the events obviously.”

Maria Ilieva’s concert program across the ocean includes not only her greatest hits, but also special acoustic versions of golden Bulgarian songs. She won’t miss her new Let It Rain ballad. The video to the song has been among the most watched across social media since New Year.

“Let It Rain is a song I’ve fallen in love ever since I heard the demo. We did it together with Boyan Hristov and Valeri Milev shot the video. The arrangement is beautiful, with symphonic orchestra involved and the drums of Vassil Gutev. Georgi Yanev recorded the guitar. I am happy that a ballad got so popular. What is the price of glory that I pay? Perhaps it is the lack of enough free time for the ones I love and for my hobbies. I don’t see that fame as a threat – it came as a result of hard work and that is why I feel it somehow natural. I’ve never lied to myself that the public image is the most pleasant feeling. However, the important thing for me is the existence of an inner balance that gives me peace. To sum up, I feel good and I am happy with my choices so far…”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev