The Best of Slavi's Show

Talent does what it can, genius does what it must.
Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Recently I have been watching excerpts from Slavi's Show on YouTube.  The host is a very talented man who has captivated late night Bulgarian TV watchers since 2000. 

This show features Bulgarian pop and folk music and Slavi (full name Slavi Trifonov), with his Ku-Ku Band, have hosted numerous performers.  It is the Bulgarian version of the Tonight Show (the older version with Johnny Carson as MC.)  Unfortunately, the last broadcast of Slavi's Show will be on 31 July 2019.

Video #1 is a sing-along.  The song is Nazad, Nazad, Mome Kalino. I don't know the name of the woman who sings with him, if anyone out there knows who she is, please post her name in the "comments" section.

Note: in the lower right hand corner of the video, there is a logo for Seven-Eight Productions.  7/8 is a very common dance rhythm in the Balkans (especially in Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Romania).  There are different forms of 7/8: lesnoto, chetvorno, and rachenitsa. depending on the grouping of the beats.  This song is a 7/8 lesnoto.



In Video #2 Slavi sings Svatba. This is a different song from the one that we dance to (sung by Nikolina Chakardakova).  It means "wedding" in Bulgarian.  If anyone out there can get me the lyrics for Svatba, please post them in the comments.

The drummers in the intro are amazing.  They play for nearly two minutes!



Video #3 is another Slavi sing along. This time it's the Bulgarian National Anthem. You can feel the excitement here, as well as the Bulgarians' love for their country (too bad the end was cut off abruptly).



If you enjoyed this, you can watch many more excerpts of Slavi's Show on YouTube or on his official site. You may also like these posts:

Variations on the Bulgarian folk dance: Svatba

Folklore and Eurovision

Bits and Pieces:  More Folklore and Pop Culture from the Universe of YouTube


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

Love Has a Dark Side: Nazad, Nazad, Mome Kalino

"Well," said she, after a pause, "if you despise my love, I must see what can be done with fear. You smile, but the day will come when you will come screaming to me for pardon."
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

One of the leaders in my group introduced a new dance that he had learned at a workshop at Pinewoods, a dance camp in eastern Massachusetts. This one used the music to Nazad, Nazad, Mome Kalino. Some say this song is Bulgarian, others, Macedonian.  To me it's another example of a song with dual citizenship that's gone border-hopping.

I knew this poignant and beautiful song was about love gone wrong, so I went to several websites to search for lyrics, preferably in English translation. The Google Translate tool turned it into total gibberish (talk about lost in translation!) Fortunately I was able to find this Bulgarian YouTube video. There is a slideshow of pictures from Bulgaria along with the lyrics.

It is the tale of a married man telling a young woman to keep away from him. She persistently insists on stalking him in various ways; such as changing herself into a falcon or a barbel-fish.

She intends to bring death and destruction if she can't get her way.



This is the performance of the same song as video #1 by Slavi Trifonov and Nina Nikolina.  Slavi often features folk musicians on his  TV program, which is very popular in Bulgaria.  The closest thing we have to it in the States is the Tonight Show. I think Slavi is much more entertaining, and he's a very good singer.



The next video is the Macedonian version of Nazad, with lyrics. I couldn't find a translation into English that made sense so I don't know how much of a difference there is between the the two. If anyone out there has a translation, please post it in the "comments" section.

If you read Macedonian, you can sing along :)



And finally, here's a group of young women from Bulgaria dancing to the song.  The choreography is somewhat different than what I was taught; this is a dance called Shirto. The meter here is 7/8 (pineapple-apple-apple), which is also known as lesnoto rhythm.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Modern Versions of Traditional Bulgarian Folk Songs (parts one, two, and three)

Modern Versions of Traditional Macedonian Folk Songs

The Falcon in Bulgarian and Macedonian Folk Songs


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