| 24 July 1990. The helicopter of Bulgaria's Communist leader Todor Zhivkov is preparing for landing with little security. Onboard is Lepa Brena... www.mycentury.tv Bosnian-born, all-Yugoslav diva, arriving in Sofia in a packed venue. A triumphant welcome at the national football stadium, Vassil Levski, by a crowd of more than 70.000. It's only months after the forced resignation of Zhivkov, after 35 years in power. The first shots in Yugoslavia and the death of a state are just a few months away. Later on Lepa Brena would return several times to Bulgaria. During the murky time of UN oil sanctions on former Yugoslavia -- a period in which the Bulgarian state lost a fortune, while Bulgarian individuals made their fortunes -- Lepa Brena would appear at private parties of Bulgarian businessmen, who were getting richer by the hour. For many the concert evening in 1990 opened Bulgaria's door for another Serbia, whose face was still unknown while that helicopter was landing in Sofia. This is how Lepa Brena herself remembers that evening: "Bio je to pravi spektakl kada su me na stadion dovezli helikopterom bivšeg predsednika Todora Živkova. Sećam se da su me piloti prvo vozili preko nekoliko stadiona u Sofiji, koji su bili potpuno prazni. Nisam verovala da ću napuniti stadion, jer sam ipak iz druge zemlje, pa su me malo zbunili. Bila sam ubeđena da niko nije došao na moj koncert kada sam videla te prazne stadione. I kada smo sleteli na stadion "Levski", pomislila sam da se tu ... |
