MuSiC oF BaLKaN

I’m currently in love with Balkan music, music of Southeastern European region that includes Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Moldova, Romania, Slovenia & Turkey. It is a type of music which is different from other types of music in the continent of Europe. This is mainly because it was influenced by the mixture of traditional music of Southeastern European ethnic groups & traditional music of Muslim Turks. This type of music started to flourish when the Balkan region was under the rule of Ottoman Empire.


Balkan Region Map
Few of my favourite Balkan songs are:

1) ZELJKO JOKSIMOVIC - LANE MOJE
This song represented Serbia & Montenegro in Eurovision Song Contest 2004 which was held in Istanbul, Turkey & it won the 2nd place. The song is in Serbian language. It was written & sung by Zeljko Joksimovic himself. The melody of this song has a mixture of ethno elements and traditional Serbian music.


ZELJKO JOKSIMOVIC - LANE MOJE


2) HARI MATA HARI - LEJLA
This song represented Bosnia & Herzegovina in Eurovision Song Contest 2006 which was held in Athens, Greece & it won the 3rd place. The song is in Bosnian language and it was sung by Hari Mata Hari, a popular music band from Bosnia & Herzegovina. The lyrics have a touch of Bosnia & Herzegovina and tell about an unhappy love. Its visual identity contained elements of ancient national decoration and the rich ethnic tradition of the people of Bosnia & Herzegovina in a modern styled variant.


HARI MATA HARI - LEJLA


3) NO NAME - ZAUVIJEK MOJA
This song represented Serbia & Montenegro in Eurovision Song Contest 2005 which was held in Kiev, Ukraine & it won the 7th place. This song is in Montenegrin Language & was performed by a popular music band from Montenegro called 'No Name'. This song is quite simple, yet it has a very beautiful melody especially when it comes to the violin playing.


NO NAME - ZAUVIJEK MOJA


4) DINO MERLIN & ZELJKO JOKSIMOVIC - SUPERMEN
This song is in Serbian Language & is sung as a duet by 2 famous Serbian singer, Dino Merlin & Zeljko Joksimovic


DINO MERLIN & ZELJKO JOKSIMOVIC - SUPERMEN


5) JELENA TOMASEVIC - ORO
This song represented Serbia in Eurovision Song Contest 2008 which was held in Belgrade, Serbia & it won the 6th place. It was performed by a popular Serbian singer named Jelena Tomasevic. The song is in Serbian language, but it also has several versions in different languages such as Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, English, Russian, Swedish, Hebrew and Finnish.


JELENA TOMASEVIC - ORO


6) REGINA - BISTRA VODA
This song represented Bosnia & Herzegovina in Eurovision Song Contest 2009 which was held in Moscow, Russia & it won the 9th place. It is in Bosnian Language. It was performed by a renowned rock band from Bosnia & Herzegovina named Regina. There is also an English version of the song, which is not however a translation of the Bosnian lyrics.


REGINA - BISTRA VODA