With songs of sadness and of mirth,
That they might touch the hearts of men,
And bring them back to heaven again.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
This week marks the 300th post and the sixth year of The Alien Diaries. When I started this blog in 2010, I never expected it to go for so long!
In honor of International Women's Day on March 8, today's featured artist is Binka Dobreva from Bulgaria. She performs traditional as well as modern folk songs.
According to Bulgarian Wikipedia, she celebrates her 56th birthday on March 11. She has performed with the Filip Kutev Ensemble and The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices.
Binka Dobreva wears a really strange outfit in video #1. Fashion has come a long way since 1995, when this video was recorded.
Some people who design women's clothes really need to have their eyes examined. The plaid jacket (at 1:00) is totally ugly and makes her shoulders much too wide. Her hair is way too big, (but not as bad as a certain Republican presidential candidate whose name will not be mentioned here.)
She was definitely in need of one of those What Not to Wear makeovers. A folk costume would have suited her much better.
The song is Gergana. The dance to it is Pravo Horo, a very popular dance from Bulgarian Thrace (Trakia).
Let's fast forward 15 years to 2010. Binka Dobreva looks like a new woman! She is like fine wine, and ages well :) The hairstyle and the clothing are much more becoming than in Video #1.
The song, Хайде всички на хорото (translation: Let's all Dance the Horo) is something that makes you want to get up and dance.
Binka Dobreva is a versatile artist and extremely talented. She does equally well with traditional as well as modern songs. The next song is a beautiful ballad about woman whose husband left her to fight the Ottoman Turks: Daniova Mama Dumashe (Danio's mother said...)
She's accompanied by the Mystery of Bulgarian Voices choir.
The translation is verbatim from the person who posted the video on YouTube. I take no responsibility for spelling errors.
Danio's mother was saying Danio,
my son, Danio I'm tired my dear,
I can't stand it I'm tired my dear,
I can't stand it your fahther's anger
your father's sorrows
When you were in the craddle your father left me and went to the Balkan (to the mountain, to fight Ottomans)
I looked for you my dear,
I raised you when you grew up you went to the Balkan too.
Come here, my dear, come here I wanna make your weddings
to have joy with dauthers-in-law
To watch my daughters-in-law and to raise little grandsons.
If you enjoyed this, you may also like:
The Women of Bulgarian Folk Songs
Valya Balkanska in Concert
Bulgarian Singing Demystified
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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