Balgarianovinite.com Forty years ago on Thursday, the internationally acclaimed Bulgarian jazz legend Lea Ivanova passed away in Sofia on May 28, 2026.
Following is an edited English version of a profile that BTA released in 2023 on the occasion of the singer’s birth centenary as part of an interview with film director Radoslav Spasov:
“Born Lilyana Ivanova in Dupnitsa (Southwestern Bulgaria) on August 13, 1923, she chose Lea as her stage name because it means ‘lioness’.
[Her family emigrated because of her artist father’s communist beliefs – he had been involved in the 1925 bombing of the St Nedelya Church in Sofia. Music was highly valued at her home.] Lea spent 13 years in Istanbul. There she studied at Robert College and sang in the children’s choir of the Bulgarian Exarchate. [. . .] Her teachers always encouraged her to sing, especially poet Nikola Furnadzhiev, who taught her Bulgarian language in Istanbul. [. . .] After Istanbul, she went to study in her mother’s hometown, Dupnitsa. Although she had a gift for writing and drawing, she opted for singing and music.
Her mother enrolled her at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia. Noted actor Konstantin Kisimov predicted that she would become an actress. In Sofia, Lea met Leon Alfasa [her first love at the age of 17], who invited her to join his Slavyanska Beseda Jazz Band as a soloist. Later, she sang with Jazz Ovcharov [conducted by Asen Ovcharov] and Sasho Nikolov’s The Optimists. She took lessons with famous singers Ana Todorova, Pavel Elmazov and Ilka Popova, who told her that she should pursue a career as an opera singer. Lea sang throughout Bulgaria. With the orchestra of Dimitar Ganev, Lea Ivanova performed in Sofia at the Astoria Bar, the Modern Theatre, the Bulgaria Bar, and the Grozd, Sports Meeting, and Sevastopol restaurants.
[In 1949 she was confined for three months to a ‘corrective’ labour camp in the village of Nozharevo near Tutrakan (Northeastern Bulgaria) ‘for loose behaviour and for singing decadent Western music’. While held at the camp, she agreed to collaborate with State Security, but afterwards apparently did nothing, judging by her file. She was accused of being a prostitute, a lesbian, of having an affair with the American ambassador in Sofia, of extramarital sex, of singing in English, and even of her two abortions. Released from the camp, she was offered the chance to ‘integrate’ into socialist society by becoming a shop assistant. She refused. For a full 15 years, she was barred not only from concerts and tours, but even from ordinary appearances, contracts, and recordings. She was turned out even from restaurants, circuses, city fairs, and village gatherings.]
Speaking about his first meeting in 1955 with the woman of his life, her husband, the composer Edi Kazasyan (1930–2004), recalled: ‘She invited me to the cinema. They were going to screen the musical Singin’ in the Rain especially for musicians. In the auditorium they announced it would be replaced by How the Steel Was Tempered. The two of us remained alone in the box and tempered our friendship for a whole 30 years…’ [They married in 1957.] From as early as 1941, 11-year-old Edi had been hopelessly in love with Lea after hearing her sing at a bar in Plovdiv. Kazasyan formed her orchestra and led it until the end of her artistic career.
From 1956, Lea Ivanova performed with the orchestras of Hristo Vuchkov, Dimitar Ganev, and the Grand Orchestra of the Concert Directorate.
From the mid-1950s onwards, her appearances were mainly abroad. Her first foreign tour was in Romania [in 1957]. Next came years touring Yugoslavia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, France [the Olympia Hall in Paris], Germany, Hungary, Sweden [the Berns Hall in Stockholm], Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Switzerland, Canada, and the United States. ‘We have a house, but we don’t have a home,’ Lea would say.
Ella Fitzgerald was her favourite, and Ivanova sang her entire repertoire. She also performed Spanish songs, Italian canzonettas, French chansons, Russian romances and chastushkas with great success. She always sang Bulgarian songs as well. Her name is associated with the first successes of Bulgarian popular music. She became a symbol of the popular song genre with songs such as “TzUM, TzUM, TzUM”, “I’m Leaving Without a Sound”, “I Should Have Two Lives”, and “Chico from Puerto Rico”.
Generous and open-hearted, with a brilliant sense of humour, Lea Ivanova won over everyone around her. She spoke eight languages. She captivated audiences with her artistry. The vivid examples of her charm and magnetism included appearances alongside Marlene Dietrich, Caterina Valente, Lulu, Domenico Modugno, Paul Anka, Udo Jurgens, and Karel Gott. In 1958, when Yves Montand visited Bulgaria, after hearing her at the Bulgaria Restaurant he sent her a contract for the Maxim, which ultimately never materialized. In 1960 she sang with Quincy Jones and His Orchestra in Belgrade. In Stockholm, she worked in nearly ten different programmes with Josephine Baker, receiving applause on a par with Bakers. On stage, she possessed extraordinary presence and magnetism.
Lea Ivanova presented seven programmes at Berlin’s world-famous Friedrichstadt-Palast Variety Theatre. Together with Caterina Valente’s impresario, Lorenz Reich, Ivanova and Kazasyan travelled the world for 25 years [until 1983]. They began with Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, and Essen, and at the Bayerischer Hof in Munich in 1963 their show was ranked among the ten best in Europe. Dutch impresario Lou van Rees offered them a tour in the United States, where the two performed in Las Vegas and sang together with Miles Davis and Gene Krupa. [. . .] Her LPs were released by Qaliton (Hungary), Electrecord (Romania), Deutsche Vogue (Germany), Radioprom, and Balkanton (Bulgaria). In Bulgaria, she cut her first record as late as in 1982.
Lea Ivanova loved artistic havoc. She constantly gave gifts to her friends, and even to strangers. ‘She was the girl with the laughing eyes,’ writer Dragan Tenev recalled. During the 1970s director Grisha Ostrovski made a biopic titled Lea Sings and Laughs, which later disappeared.
[She possessed such a strong character that she never allowed herself to show low spirits or poor physical health.] After a tour in Canada in April 1976, Lea Ivanova suffered a severe brain stroke. [She was paralyzed and could barely move her left arm and left leg. She went to Paris for treatment, but even there they could not help her. The greatest irreversible loss was her voice. She began obsessively practising again in order to walk, move her arm, and try to sing as before. She learned to sing in a recitative style, in her own way, and audiences once again went wild for her.] She selected a new repertoire with which she once again ravished fans in Sofia and Plovdiv. ‘I have nothing to regret,’ the singer admitted years later. ‘People think I’m happy because I smile. And since I smile – well then, perhaps I’m really happy…’
[A year before her death, she was awarded the Order of Sts Cyril and Methodius, First Class, for her contributions to Bulgarian culture.]
[The final ‘performance’ of Lea’s life took place on May 27, 1986, when she organized a screening of a film about herself for the doctors at the Pirogov Emergency Hospital. She died the following day, stricken down yet undefeated by cancer.] May 28, 2026: Forty Years since Passing of Iconic Jazz Singer Lea Ivanova 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-05-28 13:15:00 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law