"St. George" or "Ederlezi" - the song that always accompanies St. George's Day

There are many songs in Bulgarian folklore about Saint George the Victorious. On May 6, however, an extremely popular Romani song called "Ederlezi" is often performed, as this is the Romani name of the holiday dedicated to the saint. We can easily call the song the anthem of the Roma in the Balkans. However, we can hear it performed in Greek, Serbian, Croatian, Turkish and of course, Bulgarian. The message is strongly related to the spring revival of life and hopes.

The song is part of the repertoire of a number of musicians in Bulgaria and around the world but today we offer you Nina Nikolina's version. The song is part of the "Tradition and Classic" project, in which Nina Nikolina partners with the orchestra of the State Opera - Ruse.

The recording is from a concert in Gabrovo held in 2020. The folk music and lyrics are in a new arrangement created by Kalin Velyov, Martin Tashev and Yasen Velchev. Conductor Georgi Miltiadov is the author of the orchestration of the melody.

Editor: E. Karkalanova

Publication in English: Al. Markov