Ivo Papazov

At a glance

Source: Wikipedia: Ivo Papazov¹

Early life

Papazov was born in Kardzhali as Ibryam Papazov. He is Bulgarian Roma and has said that he knows he is Romani, despite being one of the few light-skinned people in his family. His original name was Ibrahim, a Turkish name. During Bulgaria’s socialist rule, he changed his first name to Ivo in the 1980s, adapting it from Ibo, a short form of Ibrahim. He speaks Turkish and comes from a city near Bulgaria’s Turkish and Greek borders.¹

Musical career

Papazov grew up in a musical family and began playing music at 12. He left school at 16 to make a living as a musician, following a Balkan Romani tradition. In 1974, aged 22, he began performing with his own band. He leads the Ivo Papazov Wedding Band, performing jazz-infused Stambolovo music, and is among the creators of Bulgaria’s wedding-band music genre.¹

In 1982, he was arrested, beaten and held in custody because of his origins and popularity among Bulgaria’s Turkish population. After the fall of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria in 1990, he was able to focus on work internationally and collaborated with musicians including Hector Zazou.¹

Recordings and performances

Papazov returned from a hiatus in 2001 and worked on an album titled Fairgrounds, released in 2003. His selected recordings include Orpheus Ascending, made with His Bulgarian Wedding Band and released by Hannibal in 1989, and Fairground, released by Kuker in 2003. He also contributed to The Rough Guide to the Music of Eastern Europe in 1999.¹

In 2005, he won the Audience Award at the BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards. In February 2009, he and his trio performed at the opening gala for the Year of Bulgaria in Russia, at the new hall of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nayden Todorov.¹