Vaska Ilieva (February 21, 1923 – May 4, 2001) was a Macedonian

Macedonians (ethnic group)

The Macedonians also referred to as Macedonian Slavs: "... the term Slavomacedonian was introduced and was accepted by the community itself, which at the time had a much more widespread non-Greek Macedonian ethnic consciousness...

 leading folk singer

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 from Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

 and the Republic of Macedonia

Republic of Macedonia

Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...

. She started her career as a dancer and singer in the State Ensemble Tanec

Tanec

Tanec is an eminent professional large folklore musical ensemble from Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. It is considered as an ambassador of the Macedonian folklore tradition worldwide.-History:...

 in the early 1950s. Her style of singing and the songs she sang brought her wide popularity throughout Macedonia, the rest of the former Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

, the Balkans

Balkans

The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

 and throughout the worldwide Macedonian diaspora

Diaspora

A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...

. She was referred to as the "Queen" of traditional Macedonian music

Music of the Republic of Macedonia

Music of the Republic of Macedonia and the Macedonians has many things in common with the music of neighbouring Balkan countries, but maintains its own distinctive sound.-Folk music:...

.

Ilieva was awarded various honours from many European countries and toured Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 the Americas and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, where there is a large Macedonian community. Her repertoire of over 800 songs earned her a reputation as one of the most versatile and popular Macedonian female artists. Since the mid-1980s, Ilieva focused on interpreting patriotic

Patriotism

Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...

 songs, reflecting popular opinion and preceding the independence of the Republic of Macedonia.