Elitsa Todorova

Elitsa Todorova was born on 02 Sept. 1977. She studied at the "Philip Koutev" school of music in Kotel, specializing in authentic folklore singing; and the "Dobri Hristov" school of music in Varna, specializing in percussions. She then graduated from the "P. Vladigerov" State Academy of music in Sofia, majoring in percussions. She attracts both, the audiences 'and the critics' attention by her specific voice - strong, deep-toned, clear and hardy, the tone-quality being one of beautiful and rich ornamentation. Todorova worked as a soloist at the State Dance and Music Ensemble in Varna and the The Mystery of the Bulgarian voices" Cosmic Voices of Bulgaria" Choir where she performed authentic Bulgarian folk songs, and compositions in Yiddish and Sanskrit. In 2003 Elitsa Todorova began working with Bulgaria's most popular and renowned drummer and percussionist Stoyan Yankoulov. The unique Elitsa Todorova-Stoyan Yankoulov Duo turned into a phenomenon in no time. Their high professionalism and perfectionism underlies all their performances. Elitsa Todorova develops a percussions-playing style of her own, combining quick ostinate rhythms on the tarambuka with synhronized tarambuka with synchronized playing and singing. The result is a mosaic of unique vocal movements and impeccable musical improvisations. She plays traditional percussion instruments in a most non-traditional way. The singer easily mixes traditional folklore with jazz, drum and base, ethno-motifs, classics and spontaneous improvisation. The result is fascinating. A magnetic voice and percussion tell us their folklore-jazz story. In her repertoire Elitsa Todorova plays instruments like the tarambuka, drums, maracas, clavess, old silver coins, shepperd'schimes, horses' bells, a magical thunder-wand, guirro, chimes, but of all musical instruments the best, in her opinion, is human voice. Through combining authentic Bulgarian folk songs with the energy of percussions Elitsa Todorova presents in a most touchng way the core, the potency and the emotional power of Bulgarian culture. She has been working with: "The Cosmic Voices of Bulgaria" Choir, "Varna Ensemble", "The Mystery of the Bulgarian voices" and the musicians: Stoyan Yankoulov, Theodosii Spassov, Ivo Pappazov, Antonii Donchev, Jivko Petrov, Vesselin Vesselinov, Rossen Zahariev, Michail Yossifov, Vasko Vassilev, Arabel Fon Karajan, Anatoly Vapirov, Roushi Vidinliev, Rui Junior, Pamela Nicolson, Okhai Temiz, Yamar Tiyam, Nikos Тouliatos, William Pluma, Habib Shamandy, Ivan Shopov DJ Cooh, Hristo Yotzov the Bulgarian National Radio orchestra, Classic FM Radio orchestra and many others. She has taken part in concerts in Japan, Canada, Finland, France, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Luxembourg, Greece, Poland, Turkey, Hungary, Switzerland, Croatia, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine, Belarus, Italy and in Africa. Elitsa Todorova has presented Bulgarian cultural heritage before the presidents of Bulgaria, Greece, Armenia, Hungary; before H.M. Prince Albert, Koidjiro Matsura of UNESCO, PACE ministers. She took part in 2005 most significant cultural event-the launching of cultural corridors for South-East Europe. Elitsa Todorova has been given the following awards: The Golden Phenomenon statuette for 2005, for her phenomenal achievements in the field of the singing and performing arts and for promoting Bulgarian culture around the world; A Honorary Diploma from the Republic of Austria's Embassy for her great contribution to popularizing Bulgarian Jazz music to Austria within the Step across the border 2005 European Program. "A mysterious, exotic and hot-blooded singer" 2005 Zlatna Kostova ********************************************************************* Awards: Elitsa Todorova has been awarded with the following awards: 2008 April: BG Radio Music Awards: Special award, golden statuette: BG Ambassador of the Bulgarian culture across the world Golden statuette for Bulgarian song for 2007 - "Water" Golden statuette for Bulgarian duet 2007 December: GRAZIA magazine's award "Woman of the year in category Music" 2007 October : Crystal Lyre Award in category Pop and Rock Music 2007 June: Statuette for the best video of the song "Water" - MAD TV Greece in Athens 2007 June: Statuette "Orpheus"–Smolian city 2007 May: An award of honour from the Bulgarian Parliament and from the Ministry of Environment and Water of Bulgaria. 2005: Statuette "Golden Phenomenon"- for phenomenal achievements in the area of singing and instrumental arts and for the presentation of the Bulgarian culture across the world. 2005: Crystal Lyre Award in category Jazz 2005: Award from the Republic of Austria for the big contribution to the popularization of the Bulgarian jazz music in Austria, in accordance with the European program "Step across the border" Since February 2008, Elitsa Todorova has become an official representative of the Eco-campaign „Let's plant a tree"! Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov were the participates in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest! Their amazing song "Voda"("Water") brought to the country fifth place, a position Bulgaria had never reached before. After the Semi-Final where Elitsa and Stoyan gave a flawless and overwhelming performance, the Bulgarian percussion duet went out on stage in Hartwall Arena charged with positive energy and determined to present the Bulgarian grooves and rhythms in the best possible manner. Everyone could see the emotion in every stroke of the duet and the large hall erupted in applause enjoying the three minutes of the Bulgarian percussion show. Elitsa and Stoyan gave their best performance ever. Elitsa rocked the hall with her amazingly strong voice for her delicate body. What is more, she did it, unlike all the rest of the entrants, without the support of backing vocals. Elitsa and Stoyan looked comfortable and happy on stage, which quite naturally brought them the well-deserved position in the final ranking. Still a toddler in Eurovision, only in its third year in the Contest, Bulgaria managed to bring to the fore a song that wins, if not contests, at least the hearts of millions of lovers of excellent music. They came to you with rhythm and love! Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.