LILI Ivanova is one of the most significant names in the history of Bulgarian pop music and the idol of more than three generations. Recently she has revealed she revealed her secret of longetivity.

63-years-old, she has been in Bulgarian Playboy magazine, released 30 albums, conducted 10 000 live concerts, recorded over 500 songs and has been to all the world's continents. In 1997 the Women's International Association nominated Ivanova as one of the most famous women of the 20th century.

"I am famous for having an inclination for challenges and that is the reason why I seized the idea of being in Playboy," said Ivanova.

She received the Order of St. Nicholas the Miracle Maker for good things on the Earth from the Foundation of International Awards in 1998. In 1999 she received the highest Order of Stara Planina from the then Bulgarian president Petar Stoyanov, for her enormous achievements in Bulgarian pop music.

On November 20 Ivanova will launch her latest album Remixes 2001 with a concert tracing her 50-year musical career. The undisputable diva of the Bulgarian pop stage currently holds the prestigious title of Queen of Bulgaria's Pop Stage.

If she is criticised for something she has a motto that guides her: time is the judge. "History is written by winners," she added. Ivanova has a song called "Love is Life", and she has dedicated a song to this idea. "This is the most powerful feeling which has no other resemblance. "Nothing is eternal," Ivanova has said for many interviews, adding that she had to learn to lose before she won.

"I am so unpredictable," she said at the morning show on the National Television Tea (Chai) with a smile. She considers her strong self-discipline and self-demanding behaviour to be a problem sometimes. "I require the same from other people and maybe that is the reason why sometimes I am referred to as capricious and too demanding," she said.

Ivanova is a symbol of the Bulgarian stage and said that the only thing that is significant to her is her work and her songs. "It would not be me if I stopped looking ahead for innovations and new challenges," she said. Once she said that for her money is like sex - something without which we cannot live but if we are left just with it we will not be happy. She has often been misunderstood and misquoted to which she said simply that the truth accompanies her and the rest she pays no respect to.

Ivanova does not understand falsness and hypocrisy in people and it hurts her very much because it has nothing to do with what she highly praises - namely love. "Love is stronger than all the rest," she said.

The first hit Ivanova released and which started her magnificent singing involvement was "Saturday Evening" from 1963. In the same year Ivanova also released her first album made in Romania (the first record of a Bulgarian artist to be made abroad during communism). The first award she won was The Golden Key in Bratislava in 1966, and during the next ten years she won over 10 international awards. Some of her greatest hits are "Camino" (Mexican folkloric song), "Are You A Dream", "I Love You", "Our Summer", "Warning", "Heavy Wedding", "My Mother" and "Hazard".

Ivanova was born in 1939 in Kubrat and graduated to become a nurse. She revealed that the secret of her fantastic shape is her genes and internal feelings. "Maybe the secret for my good shape is the love I am spreading around and which radiates around me," Ivanova said. She forbids herself sugar, salt, fat, spice and flour. Good appearance is self-respect, Ivanova said, and added that beauty is not a target but a necessity.

Ivanova is rarely seen at high-class events and receptions because she said that she is not interested in competing with some pseudo aristocracy and pseudo intelligentsia. Every day is different for her but she is happiest when on stage.