Damir Imamović, the most famous Sevdalinka interpreter from Bosnia and Herzegovina, after a break of several years, will mingle with the Podgorica audience again on Saturday, June 16, in the Great Hall of the KIC, starting at 20 p.m. This time he will perform with the band Sevdah Takht, which consists of percussionist Nenad Kovačić, bassist Ivan Mihajlović and violinist Ivana Đurić. Imamović will present the new album "Dvojka" to the Podgorica audience, which was released for the well-known publishing house Glitterbeat Records. On this album, Imamović is also the author of the lyrics for the first time.
Damir Imamović is called "a true revolutionary of the sevdah genre" and "the king of sevdah music" by domestic and foreign media, perhaps because he is constantly expanding his repertoire and creating a special style of contemporary sevdah with his interpretations. Tickets for his concert can be found at the ticket office of KIC "Budo Tomović" at a price of 10 euros.
You have not been in Podgorica for a long time. During that time, you released several albums, and are new songs the only thing the audience will hear when it comes to Damir Imamović?
I'm very happy that people are still listening to the stuff I was doing back in 2006 or 2010. That's a huge compliment for any artist. Here I am referring to original songs as well as covers of traditional ones. The new songs from my album "Dvojka" from 2016 were also very well received, I perform a lot, I'm constantly on the road. I try not to let any concert be the same, to change the repertoire. It is wonderful to have a long history of sevdah behind you, from which you can always extract some pearl to refresh the story. For the first time I am in Montenegro with a quartet. In 2015, an exceptional violinist from Sarajevo, Ivana Đurić, joined my band. Even though it was only three years ago, we've been through a lot together. Played all over Europe, in China and other countries.
What impressions do you have from previous performances in Montenegro, what is the audience like?
The Montenegrin audience is wonderful. I think we share a significant part of the common past, musical history, but also the present. That's why I always feel at home when I play in Montenegro. I think that my first performance in Podgorica was a guest appearance at the concert of Šukrija Serhatlić Žuto at KIC "Budo Tomović". After that I had several very successful concerts, and now we are returning to Podgorica after a few years of break.
They say that with your interpretation of sevdalinka, you are writing a new chapter in the history of this musical genre. How much do such comments please you, and how much do they oblige you?
It is very important not to start thinking about yourself in the third person. I've seen a lot of people in this business lose ground. Admittedly, the audience partly loves it, that life with one foot on the cloud and the other on the ground. However, I try not to get carried away by the praise.
In recent years, the popularity of sevdalinka has grown rapidly, and you are one of the pioneers who introduced the younger generation to this genre. How hard was that job?
Well, there were various phases. In the beginning, the hardest part was getting people to take us seriously. We live in a very conservative environment. Even the most progressive people, when it comes to culture, and especially traditional music, are extremely conservative and very closed to new ideas. However, it turned out to be just what the music needed to get a new lease of life. These lovers of "originality" almost completely killed it and turned it into a folklore stump.
You are the grandson of Zaim Imamović and the son of Nedžad Imamović, also a legendary interpreter of Sevdalinka. Was it a logical way to continue to contribute to the preservation of Sevdalinka and the rich and long family tradition through your interpretations?
Maybe so, it's hard to say.
In recent years, there are more and more performers who are engaged in sevdah - Amira Medunjanin, BožoVrećo, Divanhanna, but few decide to continue sevdah through some new original songs. You made Amira Medunjanin's first original single and encouraged her to record new songs based on sevdah. How important is it to preserve the cult of sevdah in this way?
It is extremely important. If that great and important tradition doesn't catch on with today's, and doesn't change the way we all change, I'm afraid that in a decade we won't even have a living art of sevdah. I wrote my first author's song back in 2007 and it appeared in the movie "Sevdah" filmed by Marina Andree-Škop. Her success encouraged me and I know that she drew many people, who were not devotees of sevdalinka, into sevdah. And that's kind of my favorite.
Of course, whether the songs we write today will remain part of the sevdah genre, to be sung when our time runs out, we cannot know.
You performed in many European countries, but also across the ocean. Does an audience that is not from this speaking area know how to recognize and feel that emotion that sevdalinka carries?
Of course he knows. All human beings feel the emotions that music carries. Even if they don't understand the lyrics. We also often listen to songs in Spanish and French, and they mean something to us even though we don't speak the language.
Since 2011, you have been working as an educator within the "Sevdah Lab" program of workshops and lectures. How willing are the younger generations to work when it comes to this music genre? Is there an expectation to succeed overnight?
That educational activity started because I was invited to a workshop in Mostar where young people wanted to know more about sevdah. They were at concerts and wanted to know what was behind it. She was so successful that she pushed me in the direction of more intensive research and educational work. Since then, I have been invited to lecture quite regularly. I have spoken about my research in many educational institutions in the world, including some prestigious universities; did a big multimedia exhibition about sevdah in Sarajevo in 2015, published a book about the history of sevdah in 2016 and many other things. I think that all this affects a change in the perception of the format of the sevdah genre. And so that the younger people who come to my workshops know that it's not a reality show after all.
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