Stanislav Todorov Trifonov (Bulgarian: Станислав Тодоров Трифонов) (born October 18, 1966), known as Slavi Trifonov (Bulgarian: Слави Трифонов), is a Bulgarian showman, actor, singer and viola player. Trifonov’s music genres are ethno and pop-rock, but he has experimented with other genres as a part of Ku-ku Band.
He is the host of Slavi’s Show, bTV’s late-night talk show. It is styled after the standard U.S. late-night talk shows. Nevertheless, many topics and elements in the show’s setup are aimed at providing a specific Bulgarian flavour.
Trifonov is a professionally trained violist. In the early 1990s, together with several of his classmates at NATFIZ, he created Ku-Ku. In 1996, as a cast member of Kanaleto, he took an active role in the protests that eventually led to the fall of the socialist government. He is both loved and hated in his home country. His current show is one of the most watched, although he is often criticised for his controversial humour. The concept of “Slavi’s Show” has changed significantly over the years. Originally, it was based on the classic formula - half of the show he performed a type of “one-man show” (though not exactly - Slavi was often accompanied by other actors and his Ku-Ku Band) and in the other half Slavi introduced a guest. At one point, the show became an arena for political debates before some important elections. Later on, Slavi and his team changed the concept and made the show more music-focused. He held a contest called “I sing in KuKu Band” in order to choose a background singer for the band. Every phase of the contest was aired. The contestants had to deal with difficult singing tasks. Finally, Slavi chose to hire one male (Boris) and one female (Neli) singer. However, because of the growing popularity of the remaining contestants, Slavi decided to continue the contest, turning it into a show similar to Star Academy. He chose the five most popular contestants (Lora, Liubena, Nadia, Svetlio, Vlado) and let them compete for the grand prize - the winner would have the chance to record an album and to make videos to some songs for free. Eventually, Svetlozar (aka Svetlio) won. Meanwhile Slavi participated in the competition Eurovision - Bulgaria. There he triggered a major scandal by stating that the winner was known in advance and the competition was not fair.
In 2005 Slavi steered his show in a different direction. This time, the famous comedians Krasi Radkov, Liubomir Neikov and Viktor Kalev riveted the attention of thousаnds of viewers. Later, NIkolay Stanoev joined the team of actors after being picked by Slavi himself after another contest. |
