Plamen Christo Dereu (born Plamen Hristov Petkov; bg, Пламен Христов Петков; May 4, 1984) is a Dutch singer, songwriter and producer of Bulgarian descent.
In 2009 he became one of the 13 finalists in season 3 of the TV reality Music Idol in Bulgaria. After the show Plamen moved to The Netherlands and started writing his own songs. In 2015 he founded his label Sayin' Dope and released his debut single "Heaven After All", followed by "It's in Your Head" with Paul Mixtailes in 2016 and "Timeless" in 2017.
Life and early career
Early life
Plamen was born on May 4, 1984, in the
Republic of Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
and given for adoption. For about a year an orphanage was his home and just before his first birthday, he joined the family of his adoptive parents Stefka Peneva Gancheva and Hristo Petkov Ganchev. Due to the law of closed adoption in Bulgaria, which protects the privacy of his biological parents, their identity, as well as his real birthplace, remain unknown. He was adopted in 1985 and registered as born in Veliko Tarnovo.
Raised in the village of Parvomaytsi, near Veliko Tarnovo, Plamen was bullied and treated like he did not belong by many of his peers. Music became his passion, love and escape from reality. He would use the money he got for a new jacket to buy cassette tapes and CD's. Locked for days in his room, Plamen submerged himself in the music of artists like
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer and songwriter, who achieved worldwide fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. Regarded as one of the greatest singers in the ...
,
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
,
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has de ...
and
Sade
Sade may refer to:
People
* Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), French aristocrat, writer, and libertine
* Sade (singer) (born 1959, Helen Folasade Adu), British Nigerian musician and lead singer of the eponymous band
* Sade Baderinwa (born 1969), WAB ...
, who inspired him.
Between 1997 and 2002 he studied in the Prof. Dr. Assen Zlatarov Secondary School for Foreign Languages in Veliko Tarnovo with major English and second - German. In his teen age theatre became his passion and he took part in several acting groups. In 2002 he applied for the actors class in the
Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts
The Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (commonly referred to as NATFIZ) is a performing, cinematic and media arts institution of higher education based in Sofia. It is the first Bulgarian university in the field of theatr ...
, but became one of the 2 people left at the final round. He then enrolled himself in the Psychology programme at the
University of Veliko Tarnovo. In 2004, Plamen switched to distance learning and moved to the capital -
Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...
, working as a stage-hand in the Bulgarian Army Theatre with the ambition to apply in the
NATFA
The Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (commonly referred to as NATFIZ) is a Performing arts, performing, cinematic and New media art, media arts institution of higher education based in Sofia. It is the first Bulgarian un ...
again, however, he decided to focus on singing later on. He graduated with a BA in Psychology in 2007.
2006-2014: Car accident, Music Idol and the aftermath
In October 2006 Plamen and his partner at the time - the artist Borislav Varadinov were hit by a car on the streets of Sofia. It took a while for both of them to recover and at that point Plamen decided it was high time to go and chase his childhood dream of becoming a singer.
In May 2007 he started taking singing lessons from Alice Bovaryan, a professor in the
National Academy of Music (Bulgaria)
The National Academy of Music "Prof. Pancho Vladigerov"'' ( bg, Национална музикална академия „Панчо Владигеров“, ''Natsionalna muzikalna akademia „Pancho Vladigerov“''), ''also known under its for ...
, renowned as vocal coach in
Star Academy (Bulgarian TV series), 2005. Less than a year later, in early 2008 Plamen made it to top 40 on the auditions for Season 2 of
Music Idol
''Music Idol'' () was the Bulgarian version of the British television hit show ''Pop Idol''. It was a talent contest to determine the superior pop performer. Its first season was aired on bTV from February 26 until June 7, 2007. During its third ...
and his first audition was aired on TV. In 2009 Plamen auditioned for Season 3 of Music Idol and this time became one of the 13 finalists and made it to the live shows. After his experience in the TV reality, Plamen decided to take a major turn in his life and moved to
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
,
Netherlands
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, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, where he began composing and writing his first songs.
2015-present: Heaven After All, It's in Your Head and Timeless
In June 2015 Plamen Dereu founded his own record label Sayin' Dope and in November 2015 he released his debut single "Heaven After All" produced together with Dutch producer Laurent Beemer, professionally known as Mr. Beemer. The single has two music videos, filmed by his husband John Medema. A month later, he released "De vriendjes van 10" - a children's song, meant as a side project to help children in the primary schools in the Dutch speaking countries count and add numbers to 10. In 2016 Plamen teamed up with Paul Mixtailes and in October they released the single "It's in Your Head", the music video for which was also filmed by John Medema. In July 2017 Plamen released his single and music video for "Timeless", followed by the end of his 5-year marriage in September, when he moved to Amsterdam.
Discography
Singles
* Heaven After All (2015)
* De vriendjes van 10 (2015)
* It's in Your Head (2016) - with Paul Mixtailes
* Timeless (2017)
* Mishale (2019)
Videos
* Heaven After All (2015)
* Heaven After All (DJ Moriarti Remix) (2015)
* De vriendjes van 10 (2015)
* It's in Your Head (2016) - with Paul Mixtailes
* Timeless (2017)
* Mishale (2019)
Filmography
References
External links
Plamen DereuDiscography on
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
Plamen DereuDiscography on
Discogs
Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...
Plamen DereuDiscography on
MusicBrainz
MusicBrainz is a MetaBrainz project that aims to create a collaborative music database that is similar to the freedb project. MusicBrainz was founded in response to the restrictions placed on the Compact Disc Database (CDDB), a database for sof ...
Plamen Dereuon
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
Plamen Dereuon
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
Plamen Dereuon
Apple Music
Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...
Plamen Dereuon
Deezer
Deezer is a French online music streaming service. It allows users to listen to music content from record labels, as well as podcasts on various devices online or offline.
Created in Paris, Deezer currently has 90 million licensed tracks in i ...
Plamen DereuFilmography on
IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dereu, Plamen
1984 births
Living people
Dutch male singers
Dutch male writers
Dutch male songwriters
Dutch songwriters
Dutch male singer-songwriters
Dutch singer-songwriters
Musicians from Amsterdam
Writers from Amsterdam