Atanas Boyadzhiev’s ''I Dreamed a Dream'' - a pop hit with a national identity

Called “one of the advocates of a national identity of Bulgarian popular music”, the composer Atanas Boyadzhiev (1926–2017) was a charismatic musician with an impressive creative legacy. A graduate in law from Sofia University, he chose the refined intellectual Dimitar Nenov as his composition teacher. Atanas Boyadzhiev wrote his first original score at the age of twenty—for a production of the Sofia Puppet Theatre. Two years later, he began composing for cinema as well. From 1952 onward, he also worked as a composer for Bulgarian National Radio (then Radio Sofia). He authored many music hits, still loved today for their incorporation of elements of Bulgarian folklore. He created scores for a large number of popular science, animated, and feature films, as well as for some of the most-watched Bulgarian television series of the 1970s and 1980s.

Atanas Boyadzhiev was among the first composers who, in the late 1960s, began actively collaboratingwith the newly emerging young rock bands in Bulgaria. Many of the lyrics for his songs were written by the talented poet Bogomil Gudev. From the very founding of the renowned international pop music festival “Golden Orpheus”, Atanas Boyadzhiev was among its laureates. He was awarded the first “Golden Orpheus statuette for the song “San Sanuvah” (I Dreamed a Dream ), with lyrics by Bogomil Gudev—a song still cherished today by the children and grandchildren of those who first heard it the late 1960s.

In a special interview for Radio Bulgaria, Atanas Boyadzhiev’s son—Kristiyan, a successful composer, arranger, producer and music journalist—recalls intriguing details surrounding the creation of the song “I Dreamed a Dream”

“The Grand Prize for music—for a song, actually—was not awarded until 1969. I clearly remember that the previous year, 1968, the song already existed, but with different lyrics. Bogomil Gudev had written a text—I wouldn’t call it unsuccessful, but it was very heavy, not really suited to a summer, seaside event. Moreover, the song itself carries a certain brightness, something optimistic. The lyrics were somewhat difficult to grasp, and Bogomil himself said, ‘‘let’s try it another way.’ And so it was left for the following year…”

For the 1969 edition of the festival, an entirely new set of lyrics was written. The idea was for the song to be performed as a duet, and the now-legendary Margret Nikolova and Kiril Semov were chosen: “a very talented Bulgarian performer, whom I remember as the only one with a taste for swing”, says Kristiyan Boyadzhiev. The arrangement was done by Decho Taralezhkov.

When the song was recorded, before the start of Golden Orpheus, the Radio’s management decided to organize a competition among the twelve songs selected for the festival, and “I Dreamed a Dream” won the listeners’ award.

“Additionally, at that time my father, again together with Bogomil Gudev, created ‘We Have Loved’—another very beautiful song, also with a national element,” Kristiyan Boyadzhiev recalls. That song, in turn, won the annual national TV contest“Melody of the Year”.

“So in a single year it turned out that Atanas Boyadzhiev won the Golden Orpheus, the Melody of the Year, and the radio listeners’ award.” According to Kristiyan Boyadzhiev, the 1969 edition of the Golden Orhpeus festival was truly impressive.

Let’s recall those wonderful times—the golden age of Bulgarian music. “I Dreamed a Dream” by Atanas Boyadzhiev and Bogomil Gudev, performed by Margret Nikolova and Kiril Semov.

Translated by Kostadin Atanasov