Could this be the best song about Gotse Delchev?

[Niko777]

LINK: https://youtu.be/yJghSuksv4k?t=24s

My favourite parts of the lyrics are:

Da te zhalam sto godini, nema da mi stignat!
(To mourn you for 100 years, it will not be enough!)

This song is mostly sad, but in some lines it does give some hope, and I thought the song was relevant to the current developments in Macedonia.

Stani Gotse, stani sino...

[Liberator of Makedonija]

This is Bulgarian....

[Risto the Great]

I didn't here the song say anything about joining with Bulgaria, unlike one of the comments: "Vojvodata Goce Delcev i site Vojvodi i Komiti koi si go dadoa so gordost zivotot za SVOBODATA na Makedonija i soedinenieto na Majka Blgarija! "

It is a song about a Macedonian performed in a typical Macedonian arrangement. Macedonians rightfully can claim it.

[vicsinad]

It is a good song.

I don't know, however, if Macedonians can rightfully claim it. Is it a traditional folk song from Macedonia, or was it created recently? More importantly, aside from the Youtube comments, if it was created recently, what is the intent and allegiance of the composers, arrangers and/or performers? Did they write/perform this song with the intent for it to showcase the nationalist Bulgarian line of reasoning that Macedonian culture is a regional and sub-culture of Bulgarian, or do they genuinely look at Macedonian music/culture as different than Bulgarian?

I hate that I'm politicizing the music this much, but I like to err on the side of caution when it comes to Bulgarian attempts to subvert Macedonian music and culture and pass it off as falling under the umbrella of Bulgarian culture.

[vicsinad]

I question their motives for good reason. Take this song by the same singer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzoZKJspo7E

Svatbe E.

It's their version of Vojo Stojanovski's "Svadba Golema." They change the lyrics around slightly by using lyrics like "svadba balkanska" instead of "denes se zhenam" and substitute "Pirinska" in place of "Radika." These substitutions are made to pull in the Bulgarian audience, and the Bulgarian audience is thinking, for the most part, "what a great Bulgarian song."

Nikolina sings a lot of Macedonian folk songs, new and old, and they get passed off as Bulgarian folklore by the Bulgarians.

[Gocka]

Good find and explanation. These god damn Boogers are just down right annoying. At least be proud and in your face about it like the Greeks.

I can't take any country seriously whose favorite singer is Azis.

I question their motives for good reason. Take this song by the same singer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzoZKJspo7E

Svatbe E.

It's their version of Vojo Stojanovski's "Svadba Golema." They change the lyrics around slightly by using lyrics like "svadba balkanska" instead of "denes se zhenam" and substitute "Pirinska" in place of "Radika." These substitutions are made to pull in the Bulgarian audience, and the Bulgarian audience is thinking, for the most part, "what a great Bulgarian song."

Nikolina sings a lot of Macedonian folk songs, new and old, and they get passed off as Bulgarian folklore by the Bulgarians.

[Niko777]

I think she wrote this song, and regardless of what she believes she did not use her new song to politicize Macedonia or to claim that Delchev belongs to Bulgaria. Rather she wrote this song to honor the memory of Gotse Delchev and for all Macedonians to enjoy it (as Risto pointed out her song does not even mention Bulgaria.)

Nikolina is Macedonian from Nevrokop in Pirin Macedonia (renamed to Gotse Delchev). She is a famous folk singer in Bulgaria known for spreading and rejuvenating Macedonian songs from both Pirin Macedonia and the Republic of Macedonia. She works closely with a folk group in Pirin Macedonia known as the "Nevrokop Dancers" who are seen in the video above. One the leading members of that group who Nikolina closely works with in all her performances is actually a public supporter of Macedonian identity in Pirin Macedonia.

[Niko777]

This is Bulgarian....

This is a Macedonian song from Pirin Macedonia.

[vicsinad]

That is commendable for him. Really good to hear.

If you go to Nikolina's website, you'll find "Bulgarska" and Bulgarian flags throughout the galleries, but you'll find very little on being Macedonian, if anything.

http://www.chakardakova.com/ethnography_1.html

I'm not saying that is positive proof that she identifies as a Bulgarian -- the political climate there doesn't make it easy for Macedonians to come out publicly without potentially sacrificing careers and etc. But I still can't determine that her intentions (and perhaps more importantly, the reception and perception of her in the Bulgarian public) are genuinely Macedonian. Her discography includes one CD that's called "Bulgarian Wedding" and another called "Love and Grief of Macedonia." She also had a performance called "Magic of Bulgarian Folklore." Both of these Bulgarian performances and cd include what would be considered Macedonian folklore. It doesn't scream "Macedonians are unique and different than Bulgarians" to me.

https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%A7%D0%B0%D0%BA%D1%8A%D1%80%D0%B4%D1%8A%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0

Saying that, I'm standing by my intuition based on everything I've looked at on her that she feels she's Bulgarian and that this Macedonian music is a subset of Bulgarian culture until I see something to the contrary.

Is the effect of her reviving and spreading Macedonian music in Bulgaria causing people in Bulgaria to look at Macedonians as separate people with a separate culture and identity, or is it having the effect of reinforcing the Bulgarian notion that everything Macedonian is Bulgarian? I believe it is the latter.

[vicsinad]

Nikolina is also an owner of FolklorTV in Bulgaria. It describes itself this way:

http://folklor-tv.bg/about-us.html

"One television channel - Folklore TV, a picture that reminds you who you really are, which evokes the memory that makes you feel Bulgarian."

"In 2008, FolklorTV reshapes itself, starting to p produce documentaries (Soul of the Bulgarians, folklore regions of Bulgaria, sounds and pictures from Bulgaria, legends are alive, votes of Bulgaria), films on different topics, greeting concerts and current affairs."

"Our Bulgarian people has a rich past, from which we can all pocherpim- and spirit and wisdom."

"Folklore TV is the first and only national folklore TV, which presents the best music, songs, dances and performers from all ethnographic regions of Bulgaria."

Clearly, by ethnographic regions, it is meant the different cultural regions of Bulgaria that form part of the Bulgarian nation.

[vicsinad]

This was also on her facebook timeline photo that she put up:

https://www.facebook.com/ChakardakovaOfficial/photos/a.1590262904581900.1073741830.1590255727915951/1668711230070400/?type=3

If you can't see it, it says "Happy Holidays to all Bulgarians" and it's a picture of the Bulgarian flag.

[Niko777]

I didn't know she was the owner of Folklor TV.

She certainly belongs in the same category of other confused Macedonians...

You can't help but feel sorry for Bulgarians, their passion and love of Macedonian songs seems to be growing yet there isn't one Macedonian folk song out there that mentions the word "Bulgaria".

The same can be said about the Greeks as well.

[Amphipolis]

What is the language of the lyrics?

[Niko777]

I could be wrong, but I would say she is singing in her native Nevrokop dialect. Reason I believe this is because she uses the Macedonian "жалам" instead of the Bulgarian "съжалявам".

[Gocka]

I agree, and its consistent with what I have observed form other confused Macedonian Pirinci. The dialect in the majority of Pirin is completely understandable to most Macedonians from elsewhere, while the further you go east it honestly becomes almost unintelligible.

I could be wrong, but I would say she is singing in her native Nevrokop dialect. Reason I believe this is because she uses the Macedonian "жалам" instead of the Bulgarian "съжалявам".