NINIO

Born in Sliven, Bulgaria in 1999, Ilin Papazyan NINIO comes from a mixed marriage with an Armenian descent from his father's side. Originally, he took up the guitar at the age of 12, but in time his desire to sing grew on him. Being a student at a Foreign Language School, he made his first attempts in composing for the guitar and shortly thereafter in songwriting. He was then admitted to the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv, where he graduated with BA in Classical Guitar and MA in Pop and Jazz Guitar. After making his TV debut at the age of 20 as part of The Voice of Bulgaria and reaching finals, he decided to take his first steps as an independent artist and start releasing his own music. At the end of 2020 he made his debut by the name of NINIO (nino in Spanish) - a nickname originating from his childhood that Ninio decided to make part of his career path as a reflection of the way he plays with music in the process of creating. **In 2019 was NINIO's first appearance on the Sofar Sounds stage in Sofia, Bulgaria.