Nelly Petkova

Biography

Nelly Petkova was born in Karlovo, Bulgaria. Since her early childhood she has been focused on her development as a singer. Petkova studied Folk Arts her entire academic career culminating in her graduation from Sofia University with a major in Folk Singing. Her passion for Folk singing has led her to incorporate her unique vocal style into her pop songs.

Music career

In 2004, she made her debut on Bulgarian National Radio where, with the radio folk orchestra, she recorded four songs. At the end of that year Petkova won the competition to become the lead vocalist for the number one rated show in Bulgaria, Slavi’s Show and Ku Ku Band. There followed a number of appearances, including over 1300 live shows on national television (bTV), more than 100 concerts in Bulgaria and abroad, 3 national tours: “National Tour” (2005), “We Go On” (2007) and “No Mercy” (2009), a tour in the USA and Canada “American Tour” (2010). With Ku Ku Band she recorded 3 studio albums – We Go On (2007), No Mercy (2009) and Macedonia (2010).

Petkova’s unique voice and presence have impressed many stars of global music and show business. Michael Bolton said Petkova’s voice was “great and exceptional” and her performance – “phenomenal”. The Hollywood actor Christopher Lambert, the director Mike Newell, Glen Hughes (Deep Purple), the violin virtuoso Nigel Kennedy were also rapturous about the performance of the talented singer. Petkova had the pleasure to sing on stage with Boney M, Cypress Hill, Army Of Lovers, Scorpions, Snap, Asia, Ishtar, Toto Cotugno, Nazareth, Manowar, Uriah Heep, Accept, Nick Mason (Pink Floyd), Mezzoforte, Ricchi e Poveri, Jon Anderson (Yes), Wil Salden of the Glen Miller Orchestra, INXS, Elena Paparizou, Anna Vissi, Tarkan and many others. Besides her music projects, Petkova has won the admirations of the TV audience with her ease and charm as a presenter of Slavi’s Show, Dancing Stars and a musical reality show on bTV.

In 2010 she became the face of the anti-smoking campaign “I Do Not Want To Be At Fault”.

At the end of July 2011, Petkova announced she is embarking on a solo career. She also presented her first single and video “Lucky One” feat. Miro Gee. In just a month “Lucky One” moved to the top of The Voice TV Top 10 and reached Top 3 of the Bulgarian Official Airplay Chart. The song was also being broadcast on the Spanish CHR stations.

In 2012 Petkova released her second English single "Take The Night".

Petkova has been working on multiple projects including touring in Europe and North America between 2012 and 2016. She released her third English single "Bad" in January 2016, which was produced by Grammy Award winning producer Mario J. McNulty. Petkova is set to release her EP in the late spring of 2016.