Bulgarian LGBT+ singer Azis

ི⋮ ྀ⏝ ི⋮ ྀ⏝ ི⋮ ྀ⏝ ི⋮ ྀ⏝ ི⋮ ྀ

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ᵎ :night_with_stars: 𑀈᪶ᐢ. ̫ .ᐢ ᨰᦸᩚℓ᥋૭ꩅ᪶꧖

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I was kinda hoping some Bulgarian neighbor would make a post about him but I got impatient :joy: Buckle up, this is kinda long.

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Considering the amount of homophobia in all Balkan countries, every LGBT individual that's open about their sexuality/gender faces considerable amount of discrimination and hate. That's why, in my eyes, each of them has a lot of courage and deserves respect.

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One of those people is Bulgarian singer Azis (Азис).

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:gem: · ·Early life and start of music career· · :gem:

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Azis was born on 7th of March in 1978 as Vasil Troyanov Boyanov (Васил Троянов Боянов) in Sliven, Bulgaria.

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Circumstances of his birth weren't easy. He was born in only women prison where his mother was held because of selling imported clothes. He faced prejudices because of his skin color and Roma descent from early childhood. Other children were often mean and didn't want to play with him. Most of his early childhood they lived in Sofia. Later when he was 11, he left school and his family moved to . His first job was walking dogs for rich people.

He took his stage name Azis from some Turkish series he liked watching as a child. Vasil first tried to become photo model but in some modeling agency he met Julia Kancheva who persuaded him to drop modeling career in favor of singing when she heard his voice. They're still friends to this day. Vasil decided to music group called Roma who was later discovered by producer Krum Krumov and they recorded their first album with believe it or not spiritual and religious music.

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After that Azis decided to leave the group but because of his extraordinary vocal capabilities he was offered a contract for single album. He naturally drifted to Chalga, music genre very popular in Bulgaria, which is mix of folk, pop, Roma and Arabic elements. In my biased opinion, he's the best Chalga singer with immaculate control over his voice. Azis has one of the best controlled vibratos in that genre. His first album "Суза" (Tear) was very successful and lead him to record the second one "И мушкарци плачу" (Men cry too). He recorded a lot of songs and duets with female Chalga singers. One of those was singer Gala who became his best friend.

With his music career going great and his fame growing, Azis started to show interest in politics, and got elected as president of Roma political party in 2005. He run as candidate for Bulgarian parliament but didn't make it. Still he retained his political views about financing education of children all religions and races equally. He's campaigning for years for Roma children to get education and be integrated better in schools.

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In 2006 he published his biography which shocked Bulgarian public because of honest, graphic and explicit depiction of his love life. Many people didn't accept his sexuality (he was labeled homosexual or sometimes bisexual) but his fame still held.

Despite all that, he was sent to Eurovision song contest to represent Bulgaria with song "Let me cry" with Mariana Popova.

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:gem: · ·Life full of controversy· · :gem:

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Since his first appearance on stage Azis experimented with feminine look. He often cross-dressed in women clothing and went as far as wearing full drag after few years. Even plastic operations were used to enhance his look. He had his lips done, and there were rumors he got breast and other parts enlargement surgeries. His music videos featured lots of scantly clothed men in provocative poses. It was very obvious from the start that he was flaming gay. :joy: He got a lot of hate for that, but also received a lot of letters from fans who were LGBT (he talked in interviews about that often) and they thanked him for inspiring them to come out.

As far as provocations go, he went the farthest. In 2012 for his music spot for song "Hop" he was sitting almost naked in huge barrel with Russia written on it (with lots of barely clothed men around). That was at the time Russia took official stance against Gay pride. Azis got a lot of threats online about it.

Also, music video for song "Мразиш/Mrazish" (Hate) was used by hacker Anonymous who took over the website of Moscow’s Khamovnichesky Courthouse, when it sentenced Pussy Riot, and put up video instead.

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He has a long history of shocking album promo materials. In 2004, as promotion of his song Како боли (How it hurts) he put up a billboard in the center of Sofia (Bulgarian capital) with his naked butt on it. After public outcry city government ordered it to be taken down. Azis complained about them censoring his right for free expression.

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Azis went as far as putting picture of him kissing with his husband naked to the waist on billboards in few cities as next album promotion in 2007. They were quickly censored and taken down by then mayor of Sofia, Boiko Borisov (now the country’s Prime Minister).

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:gem: Relationships & birth of his daughter :gem:

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Married twice, unofficially, because Bulgaria doesn't recognize same sex marriages. In 2006 he unofficially married Nikolaj Parvanov. The next year, Azis and his best friend Gala decided to have a child which was named Raya. Azis split with Nikolaj amicably few years after.

Currently he has a new boyfriend Alex, who also has controversial past. Two of them often post pictures together with Gala on their Instagrams.

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Azis abandoned his drag queen persona and life of controversy and scandals after the birth of his daughter. He also changed his style again, and you'd hardly recognize him now. Currently he's going for bear look, working out a lot and got his chest hair implants to complete the style. Commenting on his style change he said that he wanted to bring down the stereotype that gays are only feminine and slim, but that you can also look like a bodyguard and still be gay.

He's still recording songs and his hit song "Habibi" has almost 100 million views and got recognized in western charts too.

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Azis often said his sexual orientation and skin color were only somewhat forgiven because he was popular, but if he was average, random person it would be very different.

He says he's continuing to enjoy his life, but he's aware he'll face discrimination for the rest of it. Only because of his descent and sexuality.

:sparkles: If there's some Bulgarian to add some more info about him, please write it in the comments :sparkles: And I must it, finding PG photos of Azis was some challenge. :joy:

:sparkles: Thanks for reading! :sparkles:

#CuratorReview