People are a country’s most valuable treasure, says the folk singer

Valya Balkanska is a Bulgarian folk music singer from the Rhodope ethnographic region. She was born in 1942 in the village of Arda, Smolyan area. She gained international fame for her performance of the song “Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin”, included in the Voyager Golden Record selection of music placed aboard the American spacecrafts Voyager 1 and 2, which are still flying through outer space. Valya Balkanska agreed to give a blitz interview exclusively for your personal travel assistant, Enjoy-Plovdiv. We spoke with the world-famous singer about the beauty of Bulgaria and the reasons for more and more tourists to visit our country. She is our first special guest.

- Mrs Balkanska, you are beyond a doubt among the staples of Bulgaria, known on a worldwide scale. People from all over love you and welcome you with open arms. They trust your opinion. Why should travellers visit Bulgaria? What does our motherland have to offer to tourists, what would leave the strongest impression?

- Bulgaria has never had a different name. It has to be known that this piece of land and the sky above it is all called Bulgaria, and Bulgaria has so much to show and with which to captivate. The people, the traditions, the food – all of it is unique, genuine. Let the world see Bulgaria, because it has so much beauty in it. It deserves to be seen.

- You literally shot Bulgaria into Space. Your performance of “Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin” is among the most recognizable emblems of our country. How does it feel, knowing that you are an ambassador representing our nation in front of the world?

- I have said this many times: I’m not proud that my song is flying through space because it brings me fame. I am proud because there is a piece of Bulgaria up there. That is what I’m proud of! Because if it were someone else in my place, whoever else she might be, I would proudly stand before that person and feel the same kind of joy. I am proud that there is something Bulgarian even in space. The same pride inspired by our first cosmonaut – Georgi Ivanov, the achievements of the football player Hristo Stoichkov, of our gold medal-winning gymnasts, and many more. All of them are a huge source of pride for Bulgaria. People are a country’s most valuable treasure, and Bulgarians are a worthy and genuine peoples.

- We find you here, in the Rhodopes, where you live and where you always return after your many travels. This corner of Bulgaria holds a special place in the hearts of tourists. What keeps you here?

- The Rhodopes are a sacred, proud land. They have lived through many hardships – poverty, penury, the Ottoman yoke, yet they survived. Those born in the Rhodopes are still here and always will be. The Rhodopes are clad in virtue. You won’t see such beauty in Nature anywhere else. Everything here is dear to me. I have been all over the world, to faraway lands, I have seen many peoples. Bulgaria possesses a beauty unlike any other.

- Thank you. We hope that our conversation will reach many of our foreign friends and inspire them to visit and see Bulgaria, the Rhodopes, and, of course, the millennia-old Plovdiv region, up close.

- If you let your hearth grow cold, you will face great difficulty in lighting it again. We must not let our hearth grow cold – the hearth of Bulgaria. I wish you success in honoring the beauty and the people of Bulgaria. Good health and fortune to you.