“My mother had separated from her second husband and we lived in the same apartment,” said the singer, who is from Radnevo, not long ago. Her father is a miner and her mother is a laboratory technician, but after the divorce she worked in a sanatorium. Desi Slava, who is the niece of pop star Mimi Ivanova, changed her place of residence several times as a child. Until she was 7 years old, she and her younger brother Milen lived in the mining town of Galabovo, where the singer’s colleague Emilia is from.
After their parents separated, Desi Slava went to live with her grandparents in the picturesque village of Pet Mogili, where she studied for only a year. After that, her mother, who had already remarried a doctor and settled in Hisarya, took her in. From an early age, Desi Slava helps in raising her two sisters, who are from her mother’s second marriage.
At the age of 15, the future star returned to study energy in Galabovo. She lived with her father, his second wife and her brother. However, due to a misunderstanding, Desi Slava ran away from home at the age of 17 and stayed with a friend for a short time. After that, she moved to Sofia, where she didn’t stay long either, and went to Dimitrovgrad to live with her mother.
Then her talent was already discovered. Desi Slava became famous with him in Radnevo, where she performed at folklore competitions. The legendary conductor of the “Radnevo” orchestra, Mincho Atanasov, noticed her at one of the forums and invited her to join the band. He talked to her father, who at first was categorically against it, because Desi Slava, who was then in the 9-10th grade, was too young to work. The musician still managed to convince him and the talented girl became one of the soloists of the “Radnevo” orchestra.
Soon after that, the singer went with her colleagues to the Payner studio to record a folk album. She met the producers of the pop-folk giant, as the leader of the orchestra in which she sang presented her as a talented singer who copes equally well with different genres of music. Even then, Desi Slava received an invitation from “Painer” to start a solo career. However, she was only 16 years old and dreamed not of becoming a pop-folk star, but of being a folk singer and singing in the “Filip Kutev” ensemble. However, she did not realize that this way she would not be able to present herself as an individual artist, a need she later realized she had.
Thus, even though she recorded several pop-folk pieces in “Piner” as trials, Desi Slava did not give up her dream and did not rush to build an independent pop-folk career. At one point, Payner even had to search for her, because they had no contact with her for several days. Since there was no internet and mobile phones, people from the company asked door to door, explaining what the singer’s parents, her mother’s second husband, did… Desi Slava, who lived in a boarding house with her mother, stayed at home because she was sick and had a high fever. Despite having serious financial difficulties, Desi Slava did not hesitate to repeat her dream of singing in the Philip Kutev ensemble when music producers from Payner finally found her.
She did not want to perform pop folk and have an independent career. The people of “Painer” managed to dissuade her with the offer to sing in three consecutive evenings in an establishment in a village near Dimitrovgrad, for which she will receive 120 BGN per performance.
Desi Slava, whose 18th birthday was approaching, agreed because of the difficult situation she and her mother were in. She went to the establishment in question with her parent. “I sang, they gave me the money and we were like queens at the market in Dimitrovgrad. I spent the one fee right away. It was very cool. And I thought to myself: “Why don’t I just sing like that?! So what?! I will make the songs I want,” said Desi Slava.
Her first album “I have no problems” really stood out in terms of sound, and also with the lyrics of the songs in it. The singer is proud to have become the first performer to change the line of pop-folk to modern wave, which continues to develop. He also remembers the first dispute he won with engineer Mitko Dimitrov, the boss of “Painer”. When in 1998 was working on the songs for her first album, Desi Slava smayana heard the objections of engineer Mitko Dimitrov to her improvisations. He called her into his office with the question: “What are those fintiflushki you sang?”, referring to the curves typical of pop the music with which Desi Slava enriched the sound of her songs. “Remove them. It has to be clean, people can see it,” declared the head of “Painer”, thinking from a business point of view.
However, Desi Slava got busy. Maybe because of her youth, but the singer surprised her boss with courage: “If there aren’t these tricks, there won’t be an album!”. “Oh! OK, do what you know,” Eng. Mitko Dimitrov raised his hands.
Desi Slava was right. The “tricks” in question became her handwriting. “I managed to win my performance style. To be recognizable to the audience,” says the singer.
It is precisely because she is recognizable that Desi Slava believes that she has stayed on the music scene for so many years. However, she shared some time ago that there was a moment at the beginning of her career when she had to compromise with her musical taste and record a typical 90’s album. She cried while singing it in the studio. But after that she managed to win the opportunity to build her own musical style.
She was supported by Mitko Paynera and his wife
Desi Slava is grateful to engineer Mitko Dimitrov and his wife not only because they believed in her at the time and gave her the opportunity to show her talent, offering her to realize herself with their company “Painer”. The singer harbors warm feelings for them and for their support in every way. They financed her independent career and took care of her like their own child.
“They have a huge role in my formation. I was a child. They treated me like I was their daughter. Even in the beginning, when I didn’t have money, opportunities, the first clothes – whatever I needed, as well as accommodation – they paid for me . Until I started working and earning my own money with which to support myself,” says Desi Slava and adds that this is the real production. Otherwise, everyone could pay to make their own songs.
“They believed in my talent and gave me a hand. Because if they hadn’t, I come from a small town with no opportunities, I just wouldn’t have broken through,” says the singer.
