Valya Balkanska: The Bulgarian Voice Travelling Through Space | Валя Балканска
Somewhere far beyond Pluto, a Bulgarian song is flying through space. “Izlel e Delyo Haydutin” (Излел е Дельо хайдутин), sung by Valya Balkanska, is on the Voyager Golden Record.
A voice from the Rhodopes
Valya Balkanska was born in 1942 in the village of Arda in the Rhodope Mountains. Her powerful, clear voice made her one of Bulgaria’s best-loved folk singers. In the late 1960s, the American folklorist Martin Koenig recorded her singing with gaida (Bulgarian bagpipe) players.
The song
The song tells of Delyo, a rebel (haydutin) from the Zlatograd region who fought against Ottoman rule in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
Sent into space
In 1977 NASA launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Each carries a gold-plated record with sounds, images and music from Earth, chosen by a team led by astronomer Carl Sagan. Next to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Chuck Berry is Bulgaria’s Rhodope song. Both spacecraft have now left the heliosphere and are in interstellar space.
Her legacy
- She has a star on the Bulgarian Walk of Fame in Sofia
- Her recording is one of the most listened-to Bulgarian folk songs in the world
- For many listeners abroad, it is their first taste of Bulgarian music
More from this series: Famous Bulgarians and their gifts to the world
Top image: AI-generated illustration, not a photograph.
