Violeta Tomovska

Violeta Tomovska is a Macedonian singer of popular and folk music, born Violeta Krnčeva on 29 March 1945 in Bitola. She comes from a musical family: as a schoolgirl she played the mandolin in school groups and joined the Ilinden cultural society in Bitola, and from 1959 to 1963 her uncle Blagoj Petrov - Karaǵule and her aunt Blaga Petrova taught her the piano.

In 1959 she moved to Skopje to attend the teachers' school and joined the Orce Nikolov folk ensemble there. In 1960 she won first prize on the Radio Skopje programme "Mikrofonot e vaš", and the composer Aleksandar Džambazov then wrote "Pelisterski oči" for her, the song that made her popular. From 1961 she sang with the Radio Skopje orchestra.

In 1964 she recorded with the Tanec ensemble at Radio Television Belgrade as the duo Krnčeva-Mančevski, with Kiril Mančevski; the record went gold. She has made fifteen singles and many CDs, and her recordings are kept in the archive of Macedonian Radio. She has toured North Macedonia, former Yugoslavia, Canada, the United States, Australia, Germany and Switzerland, and has sung with Koco Petrovski, Jonče Hristovski, Nikola Badev and Tanec.

Her best-known songs include "Makedonsko devojče", "Oj Vardare makedonski", "Zaigraj so mene ti", "Kamen da beše srceto", "Mi tovaril Dončo", "Ah vie ludi mladi godini" and "Bitola moj roden kraj". She also writes lyrics, among them "Makedonsko devojče" with Jonče Hristovski and "Kade brzaš živote" with Milan Zavkov; in 2024 the duo Dac i Aleksandar recorded a new arrangement of "Zaigraj so mene ti", with her words and Zavkov's music.

Her long career has brought her the Zlatna bubamara lifetime award (2013), lifetime awards at the Filigrani festival (2018) and at Goce Fest (2023), the Sv. Kliment Ohridski award for culture (2019), the city of Skopje's 13 Noemvri award (2021) and a state Medal for Merits (2022). She was married to the cinematographer Jordan Tomovski - Franc (1941-2011) and chairs Životna iskra, an association for cancer prevention and women's health.