Olya Al-Ahmed Author in Fakti.bg

The deeper an artist plunges into the ocean called art, it becomes clear to him that he is at the very beginning. "One life is not enough"!

Orlin GORANOV at 65!

Orlin Goranov will take part in the famous musical "MAMMA MIA!" by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, director Plamen Kartaloff at the Sofia Opera festivals "Opera of the Peaks" and "Muses of Water" on Lake Pancharevo. The Director of the National Opera received special permission from the authors of the musical to develop his own concept for the show and to offer another theatrical interpretation of the great songs of ABBA, which determined the great success of "MAMMA MIA!" on the Bulgarian stage.

Orlin Goranov will take part in the performances of the musical in Belogradchik on 18, 19, 20 and 21 August. Orlin Goranov's participation in "MAMMA MIA!" is a guarantee for the success of the show not only in Belogradchik, but also at the "Muses of Water" festival. Orlin Goranov will sing there on 1, 2, 3 and 4 September. The singer himself says about his performance in the musical: "Working in it brings me great pleasure, so success is certain!"

- Orlin Goranov at 65! How does that sound?! I find it strange because you have absolutely no synchronicity with this figure. What is your sense of age?

- Yes, and I'm an a-synchronist! /he laughs!/. I still can't give a logical explanation. Age – is how you feel. Everything else is math and statistics. The less one pays attention to statistics, the better. When I was a kid, I had a favourite Beatles song – "When I am 64!" /When I will be 64/... It sounded very cool coming out of the mouths of those crazy youngsters back then, to imagine what it will be like when you turn 64... Well, I turned 64, didn't lose my hair, still drink wine, see good friends and evoke positive emotions to move forward. Until when and how far – only God knows.

- So many songs and arias you've sung. Anyway – favourite aria, song? Which aria would you like to perform?

- Oh, I don't know what I'd like to sing yet. As they say with actors: "maybe I haven't played my Hamlet yet, or my Othello". Maybe I haven't sung the song I'd like to sing. The ones left in time are quite enough for me. And of those I have sung, perhaps the one I sang some forty years ago, and that is: "The World is for Two".

- If you had to self-congratulate for the anniversary with which song would you do it?

- With one of my first songs: "Let's start all over again". That's generally how I practice my life, as they say: every falling asleep is a little death and every waking up is a little birth. So every new day is a new beginning. And so goes my life.

- Are you planning any new song?

- Non-stop I am making new songs. Even in the Covid environment I didn't stop creating, we didn't stop working. We made during these two years the project "Singing Artists" by Igor Markovski – a bouquet of voices of favourite artists. I also participate in the project. We will continue in this spirit and soon we will do a big concert in Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture with the colleagues from this project, and the audience will have the opportunity to enjoy a lot of good music, only new songs, and we, the artists, expect a full hall.

- Can you share at least one of the songs? Which one do you like the most...

- The last two songs, "Breath", and my favourite new song – "And", based on music and lyrics by Igor Markovski and Kosyo Filipov, Svetlyo Lobushki – the people who created this song. There was an argument about how to name this song, and then Igor Markovski suggested to name the song "And" – because this "And" is a connection, a continuation.

- Many composers have written music for you. Whose songs are most common in your repertoire?

- For many years I worked with Aleksandar Brazitsov, may he be blessed in heaven, who left us a few years ago and who was a wonderful musician and person. He taught me not to be satisfied with the lighter schlagers, with the lighter songs. I have always tried to go deeper and deeper into music, into art in general, and it is no coincidence that after I took the Golden Orpheus in 1985, as a performer, and decided that I had conquered one of the great peaks of the pop stage, why not try another field – classical music, which was actually my older previous field. Then I entered and successfully graduated from the conservatory in the pop department, then I started working in opera, I have over 20 performances as titles behind me, over 500 performances, both at home and abroad. The deeper an artist plunges into the ocean called art, it becomes clear to him that he is at the very beginning. "One life is not enough"! So, again I would single out Sashka – Aleksandar Brazitsov – who left a huge trace, a great creativity, not only in the art of singing, but also in instrumental art and film music. He was a very broad-minded artist, given that he had not graduated from a academy of music, but was a painter by education, something that is known to few. He was constantly searching, experimenting and keeping up with world trends. I have sung his arrangements even abroad.

- What is your opinion on the quotas for Bulgarian music?

- I am absolutely "FOR" the quotas for Bulgarian music! After all, in the Bulgarian air, it is advisable to sound Bulgarian language! There is nothing to comment on this at all. Just look at our neighbours, what is happening and how they live, whether it is Greece, whether it is Italy, or Serbia, or Romania, or Spain, or France – everywhere there are songs in their own language. I don't know whether it is chauvinism or nationalism, rather it is a matter of inner feeling. Not for anything else, but at least the copyrights should remain for the Bulgarian artists! Let them have the motivation to create more in the future. If we ourselves do not respect our culture and language, there is no one else to respect it! So, quota, especially for the national airwaves and media, which are budget and are fed by the taxpayers' taxes, there should not even be a comment on this here. They should 99% run Bulgarian production! I don't mean just pop songs, I don't want to be misunderstood, we are talking about the Bulgarian language, in general!

- Let's talk about Orlin Goranov the actor. You were in the role of the "Bulgarian president" in the film "Mission London". How did you feel in the role of a head of state? If you were offered the same role, but in real life, as happened with Zelensky – would you accept?

- Ha-ha-ha! /he laughs!/ Everyone should do what he has studied and what he was called to do. I think even from the stage in my role as a performer and artist, I always have something to say to the people. Art has that very purpose – to both educate and provoke the people, so I'm unlikely to take on anything I'm not prepared for! As they say: "nothing human is alien to us", we have seen all sorts of situations in our sweet country, all sorts of people trying their hand at politics. I think for a person to be in this high office of President, he should not be a politician, he should be a statesman. Because anything else makes absolutely no sense. It's all vanity, and if you're not prepared to serve the people, there's no point in doing it. I still think that there will be worthy Bulgarians who will stand at the head of this country as statesmen and defend the interests of this great nation, the Bulgarian nation. We may be a small country, but we are a great nation!

- What do you think the real Bulgarian presidents lack?

- Oh, I wouldn't presume to be a judge of our presidents. Each of them has great qualities, and they have flaws too... No one was born to do this kind of work 100%. At the moment, General Radev, I will stress again – General Radev, is a military man who is prepared for any situation. He has studied military affairs, he knows how to command, he has knowledge on many things of how a structure should go... The bad thing is that the situation General Radev is in in his second term is a world crisis, it is not just ours... World recession, warfare, rearrangement of the whole world order. The job of the president requires terrible wisdom and a professional team behind you to make things happen. Whoever is our next president will not have it easy at all. If he doesn't stand up for national interests, simply nothing will change.

- Yours are the words, "Do not rely on the shooting stars, but make your own wishes come true." Which wishes did you fulfil and which remained to be fulfilled?

- The ones that I have fulfilled, they are already a fact. And the ones that I have yet to fulfil, I think it's good to keep in my head so I don't challenge Fate...

- You are said to be "star-struck". Is it better for celebrities to remain down-to-earth and approachable, or is it still preferable to be untouchable and starry-eyed?

- This is part of the game! There's a wonderful line from the movie "All That Jazz" – "No other business like a show business", so whether you're going to be a star for two hours on the stage, or a star for 22 hours after those two hours in life is a matter of choice. Yes, sometimes that recipe works for a performer's image if they want to play that theatre, personally I don't prefer it because I consider myself a normal person on two legs, with two eyes, with the same normal aspirations as all other people. I also very much want to walk the streets just like that, inconspicuous, like all other people, and enjoy life with its smallest details! And to have my feet firmly on the ground! And the "stars"... they are somewhere up there... very high... Someday, maybe, after I'm gone, I'll wave to you from above...

- Speaking of personalities and stars, you've met many of them, Ronn Moss, for example. Who has impressed you the most and with what?

- One thing I can say is that all the personalities and stars with whom fate has met me are down-to-earth and very cool people! And all these big stars do not suffer from starmania. No such thing. A person shows his qualities where he should and when he should, everything else is vanity!

- Do you regret anything in life?

- My only regret is that the clock is turning awfully fast. And maybe I won't have enough this life to realize another hundred or two hundred dreams. But what to do, one must try! "One life is not enough"!

- As a performer and a person you are very loved, what is Love for you?

- Oh Love! Love is everything worth living for! Everything we do in this world while we are alive, we do it in Its name, in Its honour...

- Which Bulgarian poet can you quote now, impromptu on "prima vista"?

- One Damyan Damyanov, for example... or Peyo Yavorov: Two Beautiful Eyes. The soul of a child in two beautiful eyes; – music – beams... etc.

- In 2018, your autobiographical book "Starting Over" was published. If you were to start over, would you change anything?

- I suppose I would change some things, yes... One makes mistakes... The difference between smart and stupid is that they both make mistakes, only the smart one doesn't repeat them! And if I've made a mistake somewhere and done something wrong over the years, maybe I'll fix it... Now, from the pedestal of my years, things look a little different no doubt. Maybe I would change some things, but in no case would I choose another profession, although there are many other professions in which one could show creativity. That is why there is a title called – "mastery" and it is inherent in absolutely all professions. And only one becomes a master who puts creativity into his work.

- Which book are you falling asleep with in the moment?

- Unfortunately, I don't have much time to cuddle up with a book before I go to bed. Lately, I've been a bit into the ancient Asian culture, and now I came across a unique book called "Pentateuch" or "Panchatantra". This is the Ancient Indian Pentateuch. "Panchatantra" is one of the famous books of ancient Indian literature. They resemble fables, or rather stories of life. How, for example, a father cannot cope with his children, because each has its own unique character, what is the way out, the solution, how to show them the things of life and teach them this life, show them the laws of nature, how and why they work, etc. Very interesting book of folklore, a compilation of interesting situations valid to this day. A philosophy about the laws of nature. Panteley Zarev used to say: "If one does not get acquainted with dialectics, it beats one over the head". Nature has long since created certain laws with which we must comply and live by. That is the way the world is. We cannot make the river flow in the opposite direction, or the sun rise from the west; nature is so designed that we should conform to it, not it to us. The better we do it, the better we live.

- Sea or mountains do you prefer for relaxation?

- A man who was born in the foothills of Mount Com in the Balkan Mountains, if you ask him sea or mountain... – I can't give you a definite answer. Both sea and mountain! Often instead of a microphone I hold the rod or rudder of a yacht. I think there is nothing strange in that.

I love the sea, I love the wind, after all my name suggests it – I'm an "eagle" who loves to fly well... only in my sleep and in my dreams... But nothing prevents me, when I get on the boat, to be blown by the wind, to hold the rod and to pray to Neptune to hook me something! /He laughs!/ And the fish I just catch and release later...

- What do you wish your readers and what do you wish yourself for the anniversary?

- I will wish readers to be more alive than healthy. Because lately our assessment of life has been modified. Life is not just about what you put on the table, how much money you made, what car you drive. Life is so colourful and animated that we should not forget the people around us. I, personally, am always interested in my friends, how they are, if they are well, I hear from them, we share something good, positive, we agree to see each other, because we need to see each other to chat, to laugh, to sing, to dance. We can't limit ourselves to the material. I don't care at all who is dressed how, who drives what car or what is on the table! A few seeds to share with friends with a cheap beer would make me insanely happy!

To myself, I would wish to gently and meekly move on… Just let it be peace, let it be a peaceful year, let's look positively to the future, and let's try to make the world a little more pleasant to live in!

Interview by Olya Al-Ahmed