Azis

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Azis

Background information
Born	March 7, 1978 (1978-03-07) (age 30)
Genre(s)	Chalga, Pop, Folk
Years active	2003 — present

Azis (Азис) (born Vasil Troyanov Boyanov (Васил Троянов Боянов) on 7 March 1978) is a Bulgarian Romani chalga (pop-folk) singer known for, among other things, his atypical gender expression and his flamboyant persona. According to the artist's interviews, he adopted the pseudonym "Azis" after the name of a character in a Turkish TV film he saw as a child.

His discography includes: "Celuvai Me" (2003), "Na Golo" (2003), "Kraliat" (2004), "Together" with Desi Slava (2004), and "2005" (2005). Azis has recorded and performed many songs with some of the most popular Bulgarian pop-folk singers, like Gloriya, Malina, Sofi Marinova, Toni Storaro, the Serbian singer Marta Savić and also the rap performer Ustata.

Azis also performed alongside Mariana Popova in the Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song Let Me Cry. The song, however, did not qualify for the grand finale.

He began his political career in 2005 as a member of the Evroroma political party and ran in the general elections campaign in the summer of 2005, but didn't receive enough votes to become a member of Parliament.

In the 2006 TV programme Velikite Balgari (the Bulgarian version of the 2002 Greatest Britons from BBC), Azis was elected as the 21st greatest Bulgarian of all time (and was in fact the second ranking living person on the list, after football player Hristo Stoichkov, who was 12th).

On 01 October 2006, Azis married his husband Niki Kitaetsa. Their marriage is not legally recognized given the laws of Bulgaria.

Azis appeared on the VIP Brother 2 version of Big Brother Bulgaria alongside Niki Kitaetsa. Azis left the house voluntarily after nineteen days.

On 05 August 2007 Azis became a father. His newborn daughter is named Raya. Raya was conceived via artificial insemination; the baby's mother is Azis' life-long friend Gala.

Azis appears on Episode 2 of Michael Palin's New Europe, in which he is interviewed through use of an interpreter.

At the end of November 2007, scandal erupted when Boiko Borisov, mayor of Sofia, elected to take down billboards with pictures of Azis kissing his husband. Both men were shirtless in the campaign. Although Borisov said the posters were too graphic, much more explicit advertising could be found all over Sofia, which has led the LGBT social movement Gemini^[1] and the director of TV2 that hosts the show to speculate that the same-sex nature of the ad, as opposed to its racy content, led to its removal. These posters are to be removed from towns all over the country.^[2]

Beginning from 2008, Azis is the host, alongside with actress Ekaterina Evro, of the critically acclaimed^{[citation needed]} talk-show entitled "Azis's Late Night Show". It airs on the national channel TV2.