Djordje Balasevic

Djordje Balasevic, the most prominent Serbian songwriter, born in Novi Sad in 1953. A high school dropout, he scored his first major success in 1977 with a tango single "U razdeljak te ljubim" sold in 180,000 copies, a big success by Yugoslav standards. The next major success came in 1978 with a song celebrating the communist revolution, "Racunajte na nas", popular with both authorities and people, and widely promoted as a generation hymn. After that, all the doors were opened and Balasevic has been a major figure in Yugoslav pop-music scene ever since. His political views have shifted in the last few decades, always condescending his public and following the general mood in the volatile Balkans, and managing to remain popular across all ex-Yu countries (despite his flirting with Serbian nationalism and populism in the early 1990s). But his style has been constant and very distinctive, marked with nostalgia and rich narrative saturated with gentle moods. He was influenced by the poet Mika Antic[?] and songwriter Arsen Dedic[?], although Balasevic is shy in acknowledging his creative debt.