An evening of traditional Greek music and sevdah will be held tonight in the Skaline beach bar as part of the event "Podgorica Cultural Summer 2012". The Podgorica audience will be presented for the first time by Greek performers Jorgos Jorgopoulos - bouzouki, Marios Makris - guitar, Vartui Vartanian - vocalist, together with Bosnian vocal artist Amira Medunjanin accompanied by guitarist Boško Jović.
"I am sincerely looking forward to coming to Podgorica again. This time I am coming with the great guitarist Boško Jović and we will present the musical tradition of Bosnia, but also touch the musical treasures of the neighboring countries that we feel as our own", said Medunjanin at the beginning of the interview for "Vijesti".
During the concert, the audience will have the opportunity to hear traditional Greek songs, as well as music from our region, while although she believes that the combination of these two musical genres would sound interesting, Amira confirms that this time there will be no such combination.
"The concert was conceived as an evening of traditional music, more precisely a double concert. Boško and I do not perform together with Greek performers. They have their part of the program and we have ours. Although, it would not be bad at all to perform maybe one number together if there is space and time to let's try it," she reveals.
Amira heard about sevdalinka from her mother, and over time she managed to build her own performance style, bringing the performances to perfection.
"A person simply cannot escape from something that is part of his being and that essentially determines him. No matter how much I try to explain the reasons, I believe more and more that we are all destined for certain things in life and it would be wrong not to accept that fact," says Amira .
Sevdah is highly respected in the Balkans, and Madunjanin believes that it is slowly gaining its rightful place in the world.
"There are already a large number of people who recognize him and really appreciate him. People, I believe, are eager to hear something that is completely honest and authentic. In the sea of so-called mass-produced music that is unfortunately present today, any breath of freshness is more than welcome ", she believes.
In her career, she had the opportunity to collaborate with many musicians, but at the beginning she was a guest on the Mostar Sevdah Reunion album.
Bosnian Billie Holiday, as music journalist and author Garth Cartwright called her, was declared the most successful female voice by the French foundation "Fondation Orange" at the prestigious competition "La voix de Babel Med Music 2012."
"They are a true representative of the Bosnian Sevdalinka and have really opened the door to many artists from this area who want to show the world the cultural heritage of the Western Balkans," claims Medunjanin.
By the way, Bosnian Billie Holiday, as music journalist and author Garth Cartwright called her, was declared the most successful female voice by the French foundation "Fondation Orange" at the prestigious competition "La voix de Babel Med Music 2012."
"In March, Bojan Zulfikarpašić, Nenad Vasilić and I held a concert as part of the Babel Med Music festival where I was presented with an award. It's really a great honor for me and I'm grateful to all the people who supported me," said Medunjanin.
The last album, "Amulette", was released in October 2011, and in the coming period, as she claims, she expects a lot of work.
"The concert promotion of the album "Amulette" is still ongoing and will continue in 2013. In addition, I am working on a new project that was premiered in July as part of the official program of the London 2012 Olympic Games as part of the cultural segment (the so-called Cultural Olympics ), under the name "River of Music".
The event was attended by musicians from all 204 countries whose athletes competed at the Olympic Games. As part of our project, we presented 10 countries of the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Greece, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey)," she concludes.
The evening of traditional Greek music and sevdah will start at 21 p.m., admission is free.
Bonus video:
