Vasil Petrov: Isn't there a thrill, there's no point in going on stage

The official opening of the Autumn Salon of the Arts in Plovdiv this year will be on September 1, 2024, at the Ancient Theater, with a concert by Vasil Petrov, who is celebrating 30 years in music. The singer appeared on stage in a special plaster boot, due to a ridiculous accident. But that doesn't stop him from spreading his charm to the audience that loves him.

He talks about his creative path to the top in the show "The Flowers of Plovdiv". on Radio "Focus" jazzman Vasil Petrov, whom everyone calls "Bulgarian Frank Sinatra".

For these 30 years, is singing still a passion for Vasil Petrov, does he still have the same thrill as at the beginning?

Yes, always, if the thrill is not there, there is no point in going on stage. Because there is always a tremor, an excitement before going out, but it is in the good sense of the word, something positive that prepares you and gives you strength to be able to do what you are meant to do.

Do you remember how it all started?

Of course I remember. It's been a long time, it's been a long time. My professional path began initially with the desire to become an instrumentalist, to write music, then I quickly retrained, applying to the variety department of the Conservatory. And so. But those are long stories.

What is the most vivid memory of the first years of professional singing, of professional performances, or in general?

There are many. It depends on what you mean by vivid memory. Many different things happened over the years, many events, many incidents.

Sinatra – is this the idol of Vasil Petrov?

No, I never have an idol, thank God, because I don't have to. These are more people I have emulated.

But how did it start? How did you become passionate about his work?

Sinatra - there was a case in which a journalist from the newspaper "Pogled" Zhelyaz Shagaev, it was at the beginning of the 90s, right at the beginning of my career, he wrote a short article that Vili Kazasyan is presenting in Hall 2 of the NDK, one-by-one, the well-known Vasil Petrov, this time in the role of the Bulgarian Frank Sinatra . And from there the media picked it up and it became something like my nickname.

But still, if one looks closely, one can see a lot of similarities both in your behavior and in the way you play music.

Maybe, but it was unconscious. Then there was a period when I paid serious attention, but only when I was compared to him, I paid more serious attention then to him as a singer. Although I liked a lot of other artists, before him I also listened to Tony Bennett mostly, Mark Murphy, yes, stars from the blues, from jazz, in general, and from pop music, from fusion, of course, I listened to all kinds of styles. But then, yes, I definitely started singing his repertoire with his arrangements, which were then with the National Radio Big Band. So, then it was also conscious. But I didn't aim to be so close to him, I didn't imitate him, everything was a natural process.

By the way, a friend of yours says that you have a natural swing and that you handle the caesura well.

Well, God forbid, right.

And that's actually the thing that maybe you're similar to, and maybe that's the Sinatra similarity, and not only that. Your voice too.

Yes, yes. I hope so. God willing.

How did your first conquests come about? As far as I know, you have awards at "Golden Orpheus“?

Ah, yes, yes, to "Orpheus Plus", yes. And they came like that, by themselves, in a sense, I didn't cause them. That's what they decided, they decided to reward me. I was awarded in three categories. In fact, as they say, I stole the prizes.

Which year was that?

1995. This is like the first "Grammy", something like that, Bulgarian "Grammy“ for pop music. I was nominated in three categories, and I won all three, actually. And two types of juries have been juried, a larger one, a lot more people at one point, then a narrower assessment. I was thinking of not going to the ceremony, which was broadcast live by the NDK, but my mother convinced me to go, and so it happened, because I had not received any awards until that moment. They were The awards were in three categories: Singer of the Year, Album of the Year and Hit of the Year.

Which song was the hit?

The hit is "Shelter in the rain“ of Teri Kaliski and Vasil Parmakov, Milcho Spasov. And the album was "The Other", my first album actually. At the beginning of my career, that's more or less.

However, listening to you now, I get the idea that it seems to be very easy for a person to become a star in Bulgaria, but is it really so?

It depends. It depends on many things.

What does it depend on and is it easy?

My, it depends on the circumstances. Naturally, it was like that for me. I don't know what to say. Because, I started at such a time when the genie was out of the bottle, in the sense, it was different times then. There were all prohibitions, there were restrictions. I remember, right, about the others, about colleagues who were previously in the industry. They have told me about restrictions on singing in English, quotas, commissions, etc.

While I was already singing mostly in English. Of course, I have also recorded Bulgarian songs before. Also, people hadn't listened to this music in exactly the way that I was doing it, and I kind of quickly became famous, quickly popularized. It was curious, interesting, yes. I didn't do it on purpose, it just happened that way. God's work! That's when my career started.

Now, let's invite the listeners to your concert, on the 1st, which concert actually opens the Autumn Art Salon in Plovdiv!

Yes, this is my last concert of this tour, which opens the Autumn Salon at the Ancient Theater in Plovdiv. In fact, I started the tour on August 9 from the Summer Theater in Varna. It was a very nice concert, thank God, with a lot of interest, at a full Summer Theater, after which I applied, did 10 more, so a total of 11 concerts up to this moment.

Let's also introduce the team that is with you?

Yes, we went through the whole of Bulgaria, along the Southern/Northern Black Sea coast, etc. I.e. it's a summer symphonic tour, with Symfonieta-Vratsa plus Hristo Pavlov at the conductor's desk. There is also a trio, these are musicians from Plovdiv, Bozhidar Tonovski, Hristo Minchev and Christian Zhelev – jazz trio, they have been working with me for some time in my symphonic project and more. We also work with Zornitsa Ilarionova – violin, she is outstanding. This is the composition of the program.

The program contains, as written, the best of my repertoire, both revived old hits – those that were hits, "The Other“ of Konstantin Tsekov and Zhivka Shopova, Zaberski Jr. made a very new symphonic arrangement in Hollywood style, both those from my early years and film music, there is also jazz. A very eclectic program in the full sense of the word. It has everything I've sung up to this point, as well as music sung in Spanish recently in my repertoire.

The concert will be in the Ancient Theater in Plovdiv, on September 1.