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"Pusta mladost" - Desi Dobreva offers a new interpretation of a sacred Bulgarian folk song

Photo: desidobreva.com

The beginning of 2025 has been more than fruitful for Bulgarian singer Desi Dobreva - in between traveling around the world, she managed to release a second single. After her original song entitled "At the end of the earth", comes her interpretation of the emblematic Bulgarian folk song from the village of Pirin "Pusta mladost" (Wretched youth). It will be part of the album "Gizdava", which the singer is already preparing and is expected to come out this year.

Desi has known the song for many years, but after watching the film "Letter to America" ​​by Iglika Trifonova, she was so impressed that she already knew - the right time would come and she would do it in her own way. She admits that the song has come a long way, she had thousands of ideas, and in the end she settled on this particular version – here's why:


"This version is a mix of many genres and styles – an eclecticism, because life, the way we live it, and the world we live in are actually absolute chaos and an eclecticism of everything. Complete globalization, in which we are looking for our own, or the local, which makes us different and interesting. Maybe that's exactly what I've been aiming for with all my work – in a way to be different, but at the same time to fit into society and the modern world. This is a very sacred song. I wanted to start a cappella, to show the depth of the melody itself, the beauty of the lyrics. It is followed all the time by some strong monotonous beats in the rhythm, because this is the rhythm of the time in which we walk and through which we pass. This is also the rhythm of our heart. Maybe in some way I wanted to show this pulse, because time does not stops – it flows, and we are only a small part of this time."


For her, this song is sacred – it is a very old archaic Bulgarian song, and Desi hopes that with this interpretation "Pusta mladost" will stay on stage for a longer time and be heard by young people who do not know their native folklore.

The legend says that it is a healing song – it is part of a ritual. According to Desi Dobreva, this is exactly what authentic folklore is – when the music and the text are part of a ritual process. In this case, the process is "encantation" – with the text of "Pusta mladost" an encantation is made, with which people are treated not only from diseases, but also from spiritual, even mental loss in the hope that they will return back to the right path. The singer is convinced that Bulgarian folklore has exceptional power, including healing power.







English publication: Rositsa Petkova


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