It’s been over ten years since Poli Genova placed second in her home nation’s national selection for Eurovision 2009 in Moscow. Since then, she’s become a Eurovision sweetheart, representing Bulgaria twice, placing fourth, and hosting Junior Eurovision 2015. She’s also been a coach on The Voice of Bulgaria and voiced Judy Hopps in the Bulgarian dub of Zootopia.
While 2020 has been a challenging year for pretty well everyone in the world, Poli hasn’t slowed down. Just two weeks ago, she dropped her latest single “How We End Up” and has been celebrating the release of her new album Tvoya. We caught up with her at her release party in Sophia, where she confessed that “everything is still super unreal for me”.
“I was dreaming of this for many years, and when it finally happened, it was so awkward, so strange. I still can’t believe it, this is my world!”
“How We End Up” sees her return to singing in English and radio-friendly “classic EDM”. It’s a long way from her rock chick phase of “Na inat”, but maintains her commitment to always experiment – she says “wait for surprise”.
This album also saw her collaborate with other artists. She mentions Maria Ilieva, who features in her song “Intuitsiya”, as one she particularly enjoyed. She hopes to make a video of that song in the Autumn, so we’ll keep our eyes peeled!
It’s also her first music since the birth of her son Daniel. She says being a mother changed all her priorities but “in general, makes me a better person, and I’m so grateful to my son.”
Poli Genova on Eurovision and Covid-19
Being a mother and hard-working musician, Poli has been keeping busy during the lockdown. She’s also been learning Dutch, the native language of her boyfriend, as her son has been learning it and “she needs to know what they’re talking about.” She’s also been learning ukulele, which would be fun to see in her music.
As for Eurovision being cancelled, she says she wasn’t surprised given the difficulty of staging large events this year. Of the virus, she says “it’s not a game, it’s serious”. She was disappointed, as she had been planning to release her album during the contest in Rotterdam. But she assures us she will be in Rotterdam in 2021 and will drop a happy surprise for her many fans.
She also gave us her thoughts on Victoria, who she’s been watching since The X Factor. She has big hopes for her, describing her as “very talented, with interesting charisma around her, and she’s evolving all the time”. Since Victoria has more time to prepare than any previous Bulgarian artist, Poli is confident that she’ll do an amazing job. Even after all this time, Poli is absolutely part of the Eurovision family, and we couldn’t be happier.
What do you think of Poli’s new music? Are you excited to see what she has in store for next year? Let us know down below!
She looks…quite different right now 😀
Holy crap she doesn’t look AT ALL like she did in 2016 or 2011. She’s giving me Eneda Tarifa vibes now
(not crapping on her looks, she looks great)
She pulls it off!