"Don't promise me anything for tomorrow, today I already cherish every minute... I want a flower – only one, but now... Because tomorrow starts from today...". This is an excerpt from the popular pop song from the 1990s "Tomorrow starts from today". An occasion to remember these words is November 10 - Freedom of Speech Day in Bulgaria. The date, which we associate with the beginning of democratic changes in Bulgaria, also became a symbol of free expression in 2003, during the presentation of the annual awards for journalism "Chernorizets Hrabar" by the Union of Publishers in Bulgaria.

• Why free speech still remains an unfulfilled dream for Bulgarian democracy
  

On November 10, 1989, the November Plenum of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party accepted the resignation of the then country leader Todor Zhivkov, which gave Bulgaria the opportunity to take a new path of development after 45 years of socialist rule. And music inspired people and gave them strength to get through the difficult years that followed.

• Music from beginning of democratic transition – piece of freedom generations dreamt of
  

"I think that art is a parallel world. One can escape into it when one ceases to like what surrounds them. During those "socialist years" music was a piece of freedom..." - says the beloved Valdi Totev from the Shturtsite band in an interview with Radio Bulgaria. He, along with many other musicians, was an invariable part of the protest rallies that flooded the squares at that time of great enthusiasm and hope for change, for a better future, for freedom of speech, of art, of the individual.

• The songs of protest are still relevant 32 years after start of Bulgaria’s democratic transition
  

Then the so-called “songs of the protest” were born, and what was said in them to this day raises questions - did our society manage to part with its handicaps, did the people we chose to rule us lead us in the right direction, did we achieve the freedom we dreamed of... And are there less people who today, precisely today, want bread and warm shoes, as Iliya Angelov from "Diana Express" sings.

Iliya Angelov is the author of the music of the song "Tomorrow starts from today". The lyrics are by Alexander Petrov.