Stefka Berova is from the beloved generation of pop artists who toured cities and palanquins around Bulgaria for years, delighting the audience with unforgettable concerts. In fact, the beloved singer first graduated from NATFIZ "Krastyo Sarafov" and for five years worked in the drama theaters in Veliko Tarnovo, Varna and the National Theater "Ivan Vazov". He participated in the television series "Every Kilometer", as well as in several films, including "Villa Zone" and "Time Separated". After that, he graduated from the School of Variety Singers at the BNR and the first graduating class of the Variety Department at the Music Academy in the class of Irina Chmihova
Later she became a soloist of "Studio 5" and the orchestras "Metronome" - 1972, and "Sofia". She became very popular with her duet with Yordan Marchinkov. Their most famous song is "Family Memory for Pomorie", which won second prize in 1975 at the "Songs for the Sea, Burgas and its Working People" contest.
After the breakup of the duo in 1990, Stefka Berova continued to work independently, performing melodic hits and also Macedonian folk songs.
Most of the lyrics of her songs… are the work of Nadezhda Zaharieva. Berova has recorded duets with her daughter Kosara Marchinkova.
This is what the famous singer and actress shared about her he alth, life and dreams.
Mrs. Berova, what's new around you lately?
- I have just returned to Bulgaria, that for some time I have been staying for a long time with my daughter Kosara in Italy. She is nine months pregnant, soon to be a grandmother to a baby boy. The deadline is April 16. Now, as I was leaving this way, I ordered her not to give birth before I returned. After that, life and he alth, I will stay to help her for the first few months, and I will hardly return to Sofia before the fall.
Now I came to visit one of the doctors who treat me, to do some paperwork, to get my medicine. I have had diabetes for 15 years, I control it with medication. I have 3-4 more illnesses, but I don't want to talk about them. The subject of diseases is not my favorite, everyone has some kind of problem, even at a much younger age than mine.
My work was associated with a lot of nerves and tension - this could not help but affect my he alth. We traveled a lot, I had 4 pneumonias, and I didn't stop singing - I had no choice, the concerts had to take place. And now our fabulous songs - both mine and colleagues' are not played on the radio. Every now and then an old song can be heard. And the fact that we continue to work and release albums with our own money is not respected. That's why I and my colleagues from the golden generation of singers gave up on making new productions. We gave up fighting. They don't play you at all on the radio, as if you don't exist and you weren't an artist. This is some craze that started right after 1989. For the first 4-5 years we didn't have any work, but we are singers - that's what we earn our living from. People were bad financially. After that, folk songs began to be tolerated. I made 7 productions with 12-16 wonderful songs each, which
didn't air at all
It turned out that for me and for many of my colleagues, our country is a stepmother, not a real mother. No one thinks about anyone. I don't care now.
You are in a lot of pain, I understand…
- I sang so much, I got sick, mom and dad left without me, my child grew up alone - well, God protected him - I was always busy, my daughter was always alone. However, I received a pension of BGN 210. But I am silent because Mustafa Chaushev was retired last year with BGN 136. There are Bulgarians with crooked fingers from work, brought to the ground, digging and plowing all their lives, and they receive BGN 36 pension. What is this?!
That's why I'm not complaining, I'm not alone, my daughter is helping me. Abroad, they say that the average salary in our country is BGN 1,000, and the pension is BGN 500. What are these people talking about? They are lying, I feel like the rulers and I live in different realities.
Do you miss singing?
- Yes, I miss her a lot. We can't have worked one thing all our lives, and now another, but what could it be? There is nothing else to do, I can do this. I don't like the songs of the young generation, nor their behavior. We were careful not to offend anyone, how we looked, etc. Now on the contrary - the more stupid and simpleton they behave, the more interesting it is, they walk around, dress up, undress…
How is your daughter Kosara's pregnancy going?
- She is doing very well, she is calm, she did not vomit or feel sick. She had lost weight before, she is still pretty. Well, now in the ninth month she has started to put on weight. She is generally a calm person, now she is waiting for the birth. We hope she gives birth normally, because it is better for both the child and the mother. But if the baby becomes very large, an operation will probably be necessary. Kosara's father, my husband Dancho Marchinkov, was born weighing 5.4 kg - quite a large baby. My grandson 2 weeks ago was 4.4 kg, and what will happen to the end of the pregnancy - I don't know. But everything will happen as God has ordained.
I do not use any he alth services in Italy because I am not a citizen. I just stay with my daughter from time to time.
I trust our doctors
My wonderful doctor Dr. Adelina Ivanova recently died of cancer, she was my jeep. Before that, another doctor from the First City Hospital died in an accident. He was a real doctor, he treated with his heart, with kindness. And doctors get sick like all people, but I remember these two with respect.
What is your opinion about the Bulgarian he alth system?
- The new Minister of He alth, Moscow, is not behaving adequately. A doctor must be a person first and foremost, and he doesn't listen to people. What are these fingerprints, all orders, all things change. What do they want from this tortured people? One cannot understand what these people are doing. If they give power to someone, he may have been a wonderful person, then he becomes like a beast.
Otherwise, we have wonderful doctors, they are many times better than those I have met abroad. I trust the people who treat me. I know where to go for a he alth problem and they don't turn me away.
How do you explain the mass incidence of serious diseases in our country in recent years?
- First - from nerves. Because people with the eternal worries they have get on their nerves. At the root of every disease are the nerves. Second - we consume such weak, artificial and poisonous food that how will we not be sick?
Third - not everyone has access to talented and good doctors. There are people who don't even know them, have no idea where to go if they have to. There are villages that lack doctors. He alth care managers do not hear the people's cry, they demonstrate high self-esteem and that's it. Medicines are very expensive in our country, and they are not available, even for cancer patients. How will people not die? They don't have bread, they don't have quality food, they don't have enough money, the medical care they use is of poor quality…
Do you find a difference between the food here and in Italy where you live with your daughter?
- Yes, I find a huge difference. The food there is much better than ours. We here say to ourselves - well, I'll regret it, I'll eat whatever. But it's actually very important what we eat to be he althier.
I'm sure the government people and their families shop at other stores. Otherwise how, if you eat the food of the people, will you be he althy? But there is God, he looks down, sometimes slows things down, but never forgets who did what to whom.
