The 2020 New Year Post

2020 shouldn't just be about vision.
It should also be about seeing what the New Year can bring. 
― Anthony T. Hincks

It's time to say good-bye to 2019.  It's hard to believe The Alien Diaries is entering its 10th year in publication with over 400 posts.  This one is number 401.

Today's post features music for the New Year, some pop and some folk.

Video #1 is a New Year song in Bulgarian.  This is a pop song and not a folk song.  It got my attention and I wanted to share it.  The artist is Nelina Georgieva.



Video #2 features Mango Duende with their version of Diko Iliev's Dunavsko Horo. This group is best known for their rendition of folk songs from Latin America.  Some are in Bulgarian, and some are in Spanish.

Another New Year is almost upon us, and it's time for another take on the Bulgarian New Year dance, Novogodinsko Horo (most of us know of it as Dunavsko Horo by Diko Iliev).

Video #3 celebrates the 80th anniversary of Dunavsko Horo.  The date the piece was introduced to the public was April 18, 1937.  Since then, it had been adopted for New Year celebrations in Bulgaria, and things haven't been the same since. By the way, the commentary in in video is in Bulgarian. The dance, however, is a universal language. The piece is a cultural icon, like the Radetsky March.



Video #4 is an actual New Year celebration that took place last year in Sofia, Bulgaria last year broadcast by Bulgarian National Television. It's 35 minutes long. If you don't have time to watch the entire video here are the highlights: the Bulgarian National Anthem with fireworks at 4:12, followed by a  Russian hymn sung by Boris Christoff (Hristov), Dunavsko Horo at 7:59, Elenino Horo by Panko Dobrev with costumed dancers at 12:45, Alexandriika at 17:54 (also by Diko Iliev), at 20:35 more brass music and folk dancers, at 22:08, Daichovo Horo by Diko Iliev, at 27:08, Rosna Kitka by Diko Iliev. It ends with Gankino Horo at 30:24 also by Diko Iliev.

Pick and choose what interests you, or you can watch the entire video, including the commercials. Notice that most of the music is by Diko Iliev; you can read about him in one of the posts below.




Happy New Year to all and thank you for reading my blog!

If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Mango Duende: Latin Rhythm with a Bulgarian Accent

The Music of Panko Dobrev

Having a Blast with Diko Iliev


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.