Valentina was born and raised in Radnevo, Bulgaria, a village 30 km south of Stara Zagora. She grew up with her parents and three siblings, where it was her father who introduced her to the music when she was 10 years old. He was a musician himself. When she was 14, the guitar became her great love and Suzi Quatro her great role model. The school’s orchestra became her first playing arena.
As an 18-year-old girl, she started singing and playing professionally with a Bulgarian band, where they played around the tourist spots on the Black Sea. She gradually gained a lot of experience and got a job in a variety. Russia became the next venue, where she was also allowed to play for the Bulgarian president twice.
In 1991 she came to Norway for the first time with the “Smile Band”. They played together for 15 years, all over Norway and Europe. They had many wonderful experiences together, such as when in 2001 she got to sing and play with one of her favorites, Bonnie Taylor. She gave her a compliment, which she will forever remember; “You sound more like me than I do.” In 2003, “Smile Band” broke up, and Valentina began playing around as a troubadour.
At Oset 2006 she had the pleasure of meeting Bobby Bare. He invited her up on stage and they sang and played together. It was a dream to stand in front of so many people to sing. She also met Pam Tillis and Paul Young and the joy was also great when she got to play and sing with Lynn Anderson.
In 2007 she released her first CD “Why not me” It sold over 15000 copies and the first gold plate was hung on the wall.
Valentina follow up album “Coming` Down The Road” in 2009 got much less distribution and sell because of the changes in the music business where the distributors priority different because of Spotify, YouTube and so on. Hopefully there will be a new release with Valentina soon.