Maria Ilieva

Maria Ilieva (Мария Илиева) is a Bulgarian singer, songwriter and producer.

She is recognized as one of the most successful female vocal artists of the contemporary Bulgarian music scene.

In the last over 20 years of active solo career, she has released over 30 hit singles, two award winning studio albums, a maxi single and a greatest hits album.

She has received over 40 awards for music and style.

Alongside her music career, Ilieva has been a judge on the first, second and third seasons of X Factor Bulgaria, The Masked Singer Bulgaria season 1, and The Voice of Bulgaria.

Her career as a performing vocal artist started in the late 1990 as the lead vocalist of the bands Visoko and Kaffe Band – the latter best known abroad for representing Bulgaria at the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest.

The launch of Maria Ilieva's solo career is marked by the release of her first single "Moon Dream" in the summer of 2001.

The album (also titled Moon Dream) was duly released later on in the year, having been described by a Bulgarian website as a phenomenon in BG pop music.

Singles released from the album ("Moon Dream", "Nothing") have gone straight to No.1 in all leading Bulgarian radio and television pop charts, while "Alright" (produced in collaboration with the avant-garde soul-funk band TE), shot to fame by staying on the top of Bulgarian Top 100 chart for an unprecedented 13 successive weeks.

Ilieva's next project, Stereo Room, included remixes by Bulgarian DJs.

The single "Stereo room" was the first completely animated Bulgarian music video produced.

After establishing her own record label "MI Productions" in 2003, Maria Ilieva worked in collaboration with Bulgarian and American musicians, songwriters and producers to record her album I Come To You, including the singles:

"Truly", the pilot single from Maria's upcoming album, is a vocal house duet song with the American DJ/songwriter/producer Keith Thompson, best known for his remarkable collaboration "Break 4 Love" with David Vendetta.

The Bassmonkeys’ remix of "Truly" topped BG Radio's weekly Top 20 chart and remained at No1 for six consecutive weeks, a precedent in the chart's history, and won the Best Duet Award at the ceremony in 2010.

"Truly" also won the Best SEE Pop Song at the SEEME Awards in 2010.

A phenomenal success for the single was its reaching the top position at the number 1 Australian dance radio station ZFM's chart.

It was also rotated on the most popular online Argentinean radio station SonicFM.

"I Like", Maria's following hit single, reached the No. 1 positions in all the national music charts.

It stayed at No. 1 at Eurochannel's Prime Time Top 10 chart for three consecutive months.

In 2012 at the Top of the Top festival in Poland Maria Ilieva met Tony Carreira, a multi platinum Portuguese singer-songwriter who later invited her to record a duet for his upcoming album "Essencial" orchestrated by the London Symphonic Orchestra.

"O Primeiro Grande Amor" (The first big love) is recorded in studio Guillaume Tell in Paris, and the album became four times platinum within three months of its release.

In 2013 Maria released three singles, two in collaboration and one solo.

"Wanna Be The Best" by KNAS and the Swedish hip-hop artist Bacardy featuring Maria Ilieva took over the clubs in Bulgaria and quickly turns into a summer hit.

"Igraya stilno", Maria's long anticipated solo single carries the singer's unique vibe and style.

A remix by the Bulgarian musician/composer Dexter turned into a massive club hit.

Maria's next project, the reggae hit "Uslovie #1" (Rule #1) took Maria's fans to a whole new experience.

The song is a duet with Zafayah, part of the best Eastern European reggae band Roots Rocket.

In 2014 Maria records a duet with the hip-hop artist / beatmaker in the country – Krisko.

Their song "Vidimo dovolni" was the most rotated song for 2014 and one of the biggest Bulgarian internet hit of all times back in the days with over 35 million views on YouTube (as of July 2022).

One of Maria's most distinguished ballads cowritten by her.

Both songs cowritten by Maria, and the latter features the hottest Bulgarian trap musicians V:RGO & TRF.

Maria's first Greatest hits album features 16 original tracks and four remixes, including 11 unreleased hit singles.

In 2019 she finished second in the 8th season of the Bulgarian version of Your Face Sounds Familiar.

She has appeared in a number of Bulgarian and international films and TV series.

Maria has taken part in a vast number of social and philanthropy activities supporting regional and national causes.

Maria Ilieva was born in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, in a family of musicians.

Her mother, Vanya Moneva, is the choir-master of the Vanya Moneva female choir and her late father, Krasimir Iliev, was the conductor of Sofia Wind Orchestra.

Trained pianist since the age of five, she developed her vocal skills as a member of the “Petko Stainov” Choir Academy.

Ilieva graduated from the Sofia High School of Mathematics.

She proceeded to receive a master's degree in Insurance and a master's degree in International Relations.