Traditional music and dance
If there is one Bosnian tradition that fully reflects the temperament of its people, it is the sevdalinka, the Bosnian love song of passion. Born in Ottoman Bosnia, it is one of the oldest traditions - if not the oldest. Sometimes abbreviated sevdah, this song, charged with emotion, is distinguished by its deep melancholy - it could be seen as a Bosnian fado - and the sadness with which it deals with important subjects such as love or death. Although it is traditionally played with a saz (a long-necked oriental lute), today it is most often heard accompanied by an accordion. A very good example of sevdah is Kad ja pođoh na Benbašu, the unofficial anthem of Sarajevo.
The great traditional singers of the first wave of sevdalinka - Hašim Muharemović, Emina Ahmedhodžić or Muhamed Mešanović-Hamić - are still popular, but less so than the stars of the genre: Hanka Paldum, Beba Selimović, Zehra Deović, Zaim Imamović or Silvana Armenulić (the "queen of sevdalinka "). Still a popular tradition, sevdah continues to appeal to the younger generation without fail. For example, it is at the heart of the creations of the young group Divanhana, which mixes it with Slavic and Oriental influences. A way - praised throughout Europe - to unite through art the aesthetics of the different communities present in Bosnia. Otherwise, sevdah can also be heard where it is not necessarily expected, such as the blues and rock festival in Mostar. Not only focused on blues or rock, this event can also invite the great national aesthetics, especially when the biggest group of the city, the Mostar Sevdah Reunion, known for its mixture of blues and sevdah, performs.
Originating in the mountains of Dalmatia - straddling Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina - ganga is a particularly impressive shouted polyphonic style. A distant cousin of Bulgarian or Corsican polyphony, this throat singing is characterized by its power and brevity (generally about thirty seconds per song), recalling that it was originally practiced by shepherds between valleys as a means of communicating at a distance (hence the volume). A very physical style therefore, requiring a great physical investment, the singer having to involve himself entirely. Practiced in bars, at parties or with the family, this song aims to strengthen the bonds between those who perform it and can deal with all kinds of subjects, from the daily life of a village to politics or religion.
In the town of Grude in Herzegovina, the Ganga Fest was once held, dedicated to the event. However, it seems that the event has not survived the various waves of Covid.
Among the most common traditional instruments are the fife, the diple (a kind of bagpipe), the zurle (an oboe) and the gusle, which is widespread throughout the Balkans and is also used to accompany ancient Slavic epic poems.
Also, one will gladly see a kind of synthesis - and especially a huge showcase - of local traditions in the music (and success) of Goran Bregović. Not only Bosnian but pan-Balkan, the music of the most famous Bosnian composer, eternal collaborator of Emir Kusturica, has not become an emblem without reason (see paragraph "popular music").
On the dance side, the country's choreographic traditions are mostly centered on rounds (the kolo) or arcs, often holding hands and sometimes using large arm movements to respond to sharp rhythmic breaks. The old Bosnian round(starobosansko kolo), for example, sees a couple break away and come to dance in the center, supported by the rest of the troupe.
Popular music
If you put "music" and "Bosnia" in the same sentence, it is impossible not to think of Goran Bregović. Child of a Serbo-Croat couple, Goran was born in Sarajevo in 1950. His first rock band Bjelo Dugme ("The White Sheep") was very successful in Yugoslavia after the release of its first album in the 1970s. Until the end of the 1980s and in some nine albums, the rock overexcited Bregović takes everything in its path and especially the support of the public. In 1989, Goran embarked on a new adventure: he composed the soundtrack for Time of the Gypsies, the third film by his friend Emir Kusturica. A major turn in his career that he continues in the 1990s with his various soundtracks, first for his friend Emir(Arizona Dream, notably, and the fabulous In the Death Car, in duet with Iggy Pop), but also for Patrice Chéreau's La Reine Margot in 1994. The following year, he composed the soundtrack ofUnderground (Kusturica, again) which won the Golden Palm. At the end of the 1990's, a new successful turn with the foundation of the Orchestra of Weddings and Funerals, a gigantic ensemble dedicated to the music of the Balkans with which he will tour for years throughout Europe. The successful career of an artist who has popularized like no other the music of the Roma people and the gypsy culture in the world.
In another register, although the genre is of Serbian origin, turbo-folk is also a real success in Bosnia. Born in the 1980s and 1990s, this bewitching, synthetic and very "orientalizing" music combines traditional aesthetics with electronic elements (especially Eurodance and hip-hop). It is a unifying pleasure shared by all strata of society, regardless of age or class. That being said, its detractors regularly oppose its kitsch and vulgar image and its vain and mercantile discourse. In Bosnia, the big names in the genre are Lepa Brena (a star throughout Yugoslavia in the 1980s), Goran Žižak, Indira Radić or Kemal Malovčić.
Classical music
If local classical music has not produced names whose reputation has crossed borders, the field has an important episode that deserves to be told. In 1992, the burning of the Vijećnica (caused by Serbian bombing) caused a stir in the international community. The emotion is such that artists from around the world go to the place for years to see and testify alongside journalists. Among them, the French conductor Hugues Reiner, who is used to performing in extreme conditions (for example, he had just conducted a concert from the top of Mont Blanc for the Fête de la Musique a few months earlier), arrived in November 1993 and chose to stay in the besieged capital for seven weeks. His objective was not only to give a concert, but to reconstitute the Sarajevo Radio and Television Orchestra. Composed of inhabitants of all origins and confessions, this one broke up during the first months of the war. So, with the help of local musicians, he went in search of them, tried to get them to come back and, when this was not possible, held auditions to replace them. What he proposes is that they play together, despite their differences, a single piece, Beethoven's third symphony, the Eroica Symphony. This will be played in the ruins of the Vijećnica open to all, on December 31, 1993. But the event, filmed only by a French television crew, will then go unnoticed, Barbara Hendricks also giving a recital elsewhere in the city the same evening. The orchestra is still active and records some of its concerts from time to time.
Current music
Today's music is alive and well in Bosnia. All world trends are represented starting with jazz, which has picked up some of its great names here like pianist Sinan Alimanović, often considered one of the best in his category and who has been a particularly important musician in Bosnia. Let's also mention Bojan Z, also a pianist, well known to the French since he has been living in France since the 1990s, or Srđan Ivanović, a percussionist also based in France.
As for the hip-hop scene, it is rather healthy, led by the charismatic and committed figure of Frenkie, probably the most loved and listened to rapper in the country. Finally, it is impossible not to mention the unclassifiable and fabulous artist Mario Batković, the "Philip Glass of the accordion", a prince of his instrument who can give goose bumps to the most hardened of us all.
A good opportunity to taste the vitality of the local scene and participate in the event Baščaršija Nights, held in the neighborhood of the same name throughout the month of July and offering numerous concerts, both traditional Balkan music as rock or classical music.
