Deep Zone Project

Deep Zone Project
Yoanna performing "DJ, Take Me Away" at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, Belgrade, 22 May 2008.
Background information
Genres	House/Electro
Years active	1998–present
Labels	Deep Zone Records, Roton
Website	www.deepzoneproject.com
Members	DJ Dian JuraTone Nelina Georgieva
Past members	Rossko Yoanna Alex Kiprov Nadia[1]

Deep Zone Project is a Bulgarian house/electro band formed in 2000 by DJ Dian Solo, JuraTone and Rossko. Eventually Rosko was replaced by Startrax. Deep Zone are most famous for their collaboration with DJ Balthazar, when they represented Bulgaria at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song "DJ, Take Me Away". The band has released five albums and has had a number of successful singles on the Bulgarian charts and has won many Bulgarian and international awards. The vocalist of the band until early 2011 was Joanna Dragneva, and after she left for a solo career, was replaced by Nadia Petrova.

Formation

Deep Zone Project was formed in 2000 by three musicians, DJs and studio engineers. They were DJ Dian Solo (Dian Savov), JuraTone (Lyobomir Savov Mikhailov, Dian's father) and Rossko (Rosen Stoev). DJ Dian was an accomplished musician who played the piano, saxophone, electric guitar and bass. In 1993, he had started as a DJ and in 1998 was selected "Best DJ of the Year". JuraTone was a multi-instrumentalist born in 1953 who played the flute, banjo, guitar, and had been part of many Bulgarian and European rock formations for 15 years and founder of his own recording studio. For vocals they included Joanna (born 1986, full name Joanna Dragneva) as a founding member. She used to be in the vocal Bulgarian group Bon-Bon (in Bulgarian Бон-бон) presenting children show on television and later co-hosting Hello and Melo TV Mania shows.

Career

After the release of their debut album Ela Izgrei in 2002, Deep Zone Project were nominated in five categories at the 2002 MM TV Music Awards. They won the award for "Best Song". In the next year, 2003, they won "Best Club Track of the Year" at the MM TV Awards Ceremony for their track "Caffeine-free" .^[2]

Their hit "DJ, Take Me Away" reached number 2 position at MTV Europe's World Chart Express,^[2] and won the Bulgarian Eurovision 2008 song contest selection process. At the Eurovision semi-finals, however, the song finished 12th and did not make it to the finals.^[2]

The collaboration with DJ Balthazar took the group to another dimension with their national club tours Welcome To The Loop and Red Line (20 dates each), which gathered an audience of nearly 80,000 people.

In 2010, they released "On Fire", a big-budget production in Bulgaria terms with cooperation from actor Fahradin Fahradinov.

In 2011, Joanna left the Deep Zone Project to develop a solo career. She was replaced by vocalist Nadia (full name Nadia Petrova), with recording of "I Love My Dj" as her debut with Deep Zone. The song won the 2012 "Bulgarian Best Track of the Year".

In February 2015 it was announced that Alex and Nadia left the band to develop solo careers.^[3]

Members

• DJ Dian Solo (Dian Savov) — DJ, composer / beatcreator, keyboards
• JuraTone (Lyubomir Savov Mikhailov) — guitar, composer / arranger
• Nelina Georgieva - Vocals
• Starlight (Svetlin Kuslev) - Saxophonist

Former members

• Rossko (Rosen Stoev) — DJ, Sound Engineer, Laser Harp
• Joanna (Yoanna Dragneva) — vocals
• Startrax (Alex Kiprov) — keyboards, studio engineer
• Nadia (Nadhezda Petrova)— vocals^[1]

Discography

Albums

• 2002: Ela Izgrei
• 2003: Vlizam v teb
• 2006: Ledeno kafe
• 2008: DJ, Take Me Away
• 2010: Dance Energy
• 2014: Niama NE

Singles

Sources

1. 1 2 deepzoneproject.com - about
2. 1 2 3 Eurovision participants page (2008)
3. ↑ http://www.bliasak.bg/news/p3_31084_0.html

External links

• DJ Balthazar official website
• Deep Zone official website