In a recent interview on the Bulgarian TV show “Tursi Se” (The Search), VICTORIA spoke about some of her struggles over the past five years, her Eurovision experience, and her career motivations.
Speaking about her experience of 2021 so far, the singer talked about the difficult experience of coping with her father’s diagnosis of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS.
“We found out a few months ago. And it came to us totally unexpected. In this whole pandemic and everything else which is going on in the world. And this just piled on, along with other things that happened in 2020, so it is really difficult for us now.”
The singer had previously made this information public in a Twitter post where she decided to make the diagnosis public in order to raise awareness about ALS in Bulgaria.
VICTORIA’s manager Genoveva Christova who has been working with the singer since 2015 also spoke about the singer’s career over the past few years.
“The fact that she was losing the interest of the Bulgarian audience back in 2017 made her doubt herself, whether she can make it. That was a very difficult time for her. She gained а lot of weight. She developed personal issues because of that.”
GenovevaBelieves the loss of interest by the Bulgarian public in Victoria’s music in early 2017 led to issues of weight gain and self-doubt. Since this difficult period, Victoria has lost over 30 kg of weight thanks to attending therapy and the support of friends and family.
Speaking on the topic of weight loss herself Victoria commented:
“I believe it (the weight gain) came from a lot of stress, because in the label I was in before Ligna Studios things were going great in the beginning. But maybe we just could not click with the team. In a way, they just didn’t get to know me enough. Maybe I also didn’t give enough space to get to know me. It goes both ways Yes, it’s always mutual, on both sides. But there was a period in which they were forcing me to lose weight. And this was just a little too much for me… I kept diets, started going to the fitness which is something I really hated because I believe it’s something that has to come from within, to want it yourself.”
Victoria commented on how the stress of working under her previous record label after initial success resulted in the weight gain and commented she felt forced to lose weight but yet felt she didn’t have the motivation from herself to do so.
“The motivation has to come within you and not from somebody telling you “Now you have to do this just because you have to!”. That’s when I started going to the gym and became totally obsessed. Every day I weighed myself at home and one day I just collapsed on top of the scales, saying “Nothing is happening!” “
During this period Victoria felt frustrated that the dieting and exercise plans did little to help stem the tide of weight gain, following this Victoria left her previous record company, which in itself was a huge emotional challenge to overcome.
“The motivation to move forward came from Genoveva and my new team.”
Victoria Believes the motivation to lose weight and reinvigorate her artistic career came from her new team and manager Genoveva.
During the TV interview, a range of surprise guests included VICTORIA’s producer Genoveva Christova, both her parents, sister, first boyfriend, and childhood friend Drago, and VICTORIA’s music video director and personal friend Victoria Karakoleva, all made an appearance.
VICTORIA’s father ended the interview with the following message of support:
“Vicky, you are everything for me! You know I love you! Be yourself and most of all – be well!”
The full interview with VICTORIA with English subtitles can be seen here:
Who is Victoria Georgieva?
Victoria was announced as the 2020 Bulgarian representative in November 2019 during an official press conference regarding the nation’s return to the Eurovision Song Contest. The 23-year-old X-Factor alum has big plans with her team for her Eurovision journey and subsequent career.
Victoria was set to perform “Tears Getting Sober” at Eurovision 2020. The song is written by VICTORIA, Borislav Milanov, Lukas Oscar, and Cornelia Wiebols. Borislav has been involved in composing all Bulgarian entries since 2016.
Victoria will perform in the second semi-final on May 20th.
Source: BNT | Image Source: Eurovision.tv / Lora Musheva
At the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, 17-year-old Kristian Kostov finished in second place in the Grand Final, bringing Bulgaria their best ever result. 2017 saw Bulgaria make only their third final in their Eurovision history, the first being in 2007 when Elitsa & Stoyan finished 5th with the song “Water”. Bulgaria debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2005. The country competed annually from 2005 to 2013, before withdrawing for two years due to financial issues.
