Marin Yonchev

Marin Yonchev

Marin Petkov Yonchev (born January 28, 1988 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria) is the winner of the first Star Academy reality show in Bulgaria in 2005.

Marin showed a particular interest in music in his earliest childhood.At the age of four Marin began playing the piano. At the same age he won a competition singing a song of Freddie Mercury! From this age he also began to sing the songs of Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and many Bulgarian singers.Marin had many performances in TV and live shows for talented children like "The Little Big Stars", "Like The Lions" and others. From then on he has taken the first awards in many musical festivals and competitions.

Since the age of eight (1996–2001) Marin was a singer and a soloist in "The Plovdiv Boys' and Men's Choir" and had many participations with it on different festivals and competitions all over Europe. In the period 1996-1998 he played roles in the A'PART theater in Plovdiv. Marin also had a role in a TV film, sponsored by the Queen of the United Kingdom and also performed the song of the film. In 2000 he and his sister Sonya Yoncheva became the winners of the year in a TV national music competition for young singers - "Hit minus one" with the duet song of Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli - "Time to Say Goodbye". In 2004 Marin won the first prize for a young singer in a competition for French songs - "Alians Fransese" with the songs "Oh,Marie"-Johny Hollyday and "Lanvie d'amer"-Pascal Obispo. In 2005 Marin Yonchev became the Winner of Star Academy - Bulgaria. After it he took part in the big national tour of Star Academy. In March 2006 Marin was rewarded the first prize for a debut of BG Radio for his first song and clip - "One Senseless Day" ( "Един Безсмислен Ден" in Cyrillic) . For 11 weeks his clip is on the first places in the competition - "The Big 10" on the National Bulgarian Television. It is also on the top of radio and other TV musical charts.

In 2007 Marin Yonchev is graduating the National School for Music and Arts in his hometown Plovdiv with basic subjects - operatic singing, contrabass(double bass) and piano. He can also play guitar and flute.

In 2007 he was accepted as a student in classical singing at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève.