Petranka Kostadinova

Petranka Kostadinova was a Macedonian folk singer, one of the best-known performers of Macedonian folk and newly composed folk song, and she carried the title of doyenne of Macedonian folk music. Born Petranka Kostadinova Dojčinovska on 14 July 1948 in Sombor, Serbia, she sang for some 35 years and died on 3 February 2002 in Skopje.

She was born in Sombor into a family of refugees from the Aegean part of Macedonia. While she was a child the family moved to Demir Kapija, and she spent her teenage years in Negotino. She brought her songs to Skopje, where she made her home and raised two sons.

Her first songs were written by Nasko Džorlev: "Ne kažuvaj libe dobra noḱ" and "Vo Strumica na ulica". Over the years she sang almost every Macedonian folk song, but one is tied to her voice above all, "Kirjana". Listeners also loved her "Ja izlezi stara majko", "Edno malo mome" and "Traj dušo, traj".

In her career she took part in almost every festival of newly composed song in Macedonia. Songs remembered from them include "Leonid so majka večera" from the first Valandovo festival, "Majstore, majstore", "Dve kalinki", "Slušni ja sestro pesnava", "Majka", and the humorous "Edna kuḱa, dve ženi" with Lenče Kukić. Her songs came out on many cassettes and CDs.

For most of her life she worked as a freelance artist, and at the end she was a member of Tanec, the national ensemble of folk songs and dances. In October 1996 she gave a concert in Ljubljana at the City of Women festival with Makedonski Merak, the instrumental group led by accordionist Milan Zavkov; the programme introduced her as a singer of the generation before Vaska Ilijeva and Esma Redžepova, with thirty years on stage and concerts "on every continent".

On the evening of 3 February 2002 she was killed in a traffic accident in the centre of Skopje. She had just come from Macedonian Radio Television, where she had recorded a song for the coming Goce Fest, her last recording. Her family now keeps her songs, TV appearances and interviews on a YouTube channel, gathered here in one playlist.