Several days ago in Macedonia's capital city of Skopje the nineteenth edition of the International pop music festival "Evrofest " took place. The idea of ​​this event is to gather on one stage the winners of various European music contests. This year representatives of Russia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Georgia and Greece took part in the music forum.

Each participant performed two songs - one for the "Vocal Mastery" category and the other for “Show Performance.” This year Bulgaria had two representatives in the contest - young Georgi Yankov, a student in the Prof. L.Pipkov School of Music in Sofia and Antonia Markova who is part of the ensemble of the Armed Forces. Both won awards. Georgi Yankov, who has participated in various singing contests since a child added to his numerous awards the third place from Evrofest 2015. Antonia Markova, winner of many prestigious contests in Europe, impressed the jury with her incredible vocal technique and powerful voice and won the Grand Prix - Skopje.

"I always prepare myself well before a contest, so that I am worthy of a prize,” Antonia Markova says. “The rest depends on the jury and the audience. I am happy when I meet talented people from different countries. I think this is the most valuable thing of participation in such forums. You can also establish contacts that allow you to implement various projects with young musicians from different countries."

Russian singer Ekaterina Petrova and Greek singer - Manos Stavridis shared the first prize at the festival.

Thirty-year-old Ilija Gojović from Montenegro’s Podgoritsa placed second together with the Russian singer Anastasia Vasileva. The Evrofest Grand Prix this year went to young singer Victoria Nikolova from Russia. Her performance was impressive also because of the participation of Bulgarian guitarist Hristo Kirilov, who has been living and working in Moscow for years. Victoria Nikolova is actually half Bulgarian. She told us more about herself and her career:

"I live in Moscow but my father is Bulgarian. I was invited to take part in the festival in Skopje", Victoria Nikolova explains. "The songs I performed were not chosen by accident. They are characterized by Balkan sound to show that I have Bulgarian roots. My friend, guitarist Hristo Kirilov, did a great arrangement.  I have been professional musician for two years and I have one studio album, called ‘The Beginning of the Road.’“

Popular singer and composer Marco Tomasovic from Croatia received the award for lifetime achievement and successful career. Marco is very popular in his homeland and he is author of more than 500 songs and winner of numerous awards.

English: Alexander Markov

The audio file contains the following tracks:

-  Duet with Summer, perf. Victoria Nikolova

-  A performance by Marco Tomasovic.