Vladimir Ampov Biography
Vladimir Kirilov Ampov (born July 21, 1978), known professionally as Grafa, is a singer, songwriter and record producer. Born and raised in Sofia, by a family of musicians, Grafa began making music at a young age. His first public performance is at the age of 10, together with his parents he sang in front of thousands of people the song “Mom, dad and me”.
Until the age of 29 Grafa has eight albums released (“Gumeni chovecheta”, “Zelen hayver”, “6 e po-dobre”, “Tokov udar”, “Davam vsichko za teb”, “Iskam te”, “Ako ima rai”, “Slance v ochite ti”, “Chestno v ochi”) and more than 20 Top Ten singles in the Bulgarian charts and irrefutable number one hits (Slantse v ochite ti”, „Davam vsichko za teb”, “Seks za pari”, „Iskam te”, „Nai-shtastliviya chovek na sveta”, „Iskam te”, „Ako ima Rai” ) and many others.
His success grows abroad – Grafa is the first Bulgarian artist to hit the number one at the MTV’s World Chart Express with “Vanilia”. He has eleven more songs aired in the program. In 2008, he co-founded the music label Monte Music, responsible for the successful careers of many artists of the new generation in Bulgaria. The label features artists such as Mihaela Fileva, Denitsa Karaslavova, Rafael, Akaga, VenZy, Billy Hlapeto, Preyah etc.
Grafa is the music director and composer of many of the songs of Mihaela Fileva’s debut album “Incognito” which won BG Radio’s Best album award in 2015. As a producer of some of the most popular artists in Bulgaria he stands behind many of the Bulgarian hits in the last few years. Grafa together with Monte Music is a music producer of the first season of the “X-Factor” show (Nova TV – 2011) in Bulgaria and the Medium Station’s authors musical TV show “Musical Academy” (TV7 – 2012).
In 2016 Grafa alongside with Monte Music and BG Records produces the TV series “BG Versia”. Since 2017 he is mentor in the music show “The Voice of Bulgaria” (BTV). Grafa is part of many charity projects especially those dedicated to children, children’s care, education and health. Grafa with the help of Monte Music organized a Nation Tour in 2015 to raise money for UNICEF BG.
In 2016 he accepted the honor to be one of the UNICEF Ambassadors in Bulgaria and made one more concert for UNICEF in Sofia. In 2017 Grafa wrote the song “Hope” especially for the campaign “Saving lives is dedication. It deserves no humiliation!”. The campaign against the violence of medics was initiated by the Bulgarian Medical Association and attracted tremendous media interest by focusing public attention on the important social issue.
