Montenegrin artist Aleksandra Prelevic who is building a solo music career under the name Dolce Hera slowly, with his author's work, he is not only conquering the region, but he plans to expand it as well. That's why the next track she recorded with the singer Vladan Vučinić- "Sweet & Bizarre" to be presented in Italian.
This is another announcement single of Aleksandra's solo debut, and this time she did not present herself only as an author, but played the role of narrator in the song and designed the entire video herself.
The two of them will premiere this track at the upcoming Fashion Week, and the complete song with the video will be available on the YouTube channel on October 17 at midnight.
Dolce Hera talks about all this for Vijesti...
Given that you attracted attention with the first music video and the song you recorded with Nina Žižić, and that these songs were already in the production phase, how difficult was it to choose who can continue the story with you and jointly justify the previous success?
Honestly, I base my entire life on spontaneity, and this is especially evident in music. I make decisions by listening to that first good feeling about an idea, which is usually the right one, and it's still all about occasionally checking whether I feel that the choice made over time always evokes the same or an even stronger feeling of euphoria. I knew about this song back in February, when it was written, that it would be my first single in Italian, with which I wanted to present myself as a singer-songwriter in that country. I believe that the strength and authenticity of the text and the story presented are the opportunity to create a contextual framework as a basis for getting to know the author, as preparation for further texts and the direction of their understanding.
Unlike the previous song, which was in English, as you already mentioned, this one will be in Italian, and you chose to have the vocal part sung by Vladana Vučinić. Why did the choice fall on her?
Vladana represented Montenegro at the last Eurovision Song Contest in which our country participated, in Turin, and successfully presented her song in the Italian version. That caught my attention and made me want to work with her. It turned out to be a XNUMX% successful idea, considering that with her voice she completely managed to evoke the atmosphere of the text and to interpret it with the natural pronunciation that Italian performers would have.
In the last interview, you announced that you will not sing, but that you could eventually appear in the role of narrator. This is exactly the role you are meant to play in the new song. Is it difficult to rap considering that we know you from different genres?
The new song called "Sweet & Bizarre" is in a completely new genre key that is not easy to define. I would say the closest thing is that it is a combination of pop rock and indie dance. The song is dominated by the electric guitar in a very impressive way, and as a drummer I wanted the beat to change progressively to continuously enhance the groove of the song.
The narrative parts of the song represented a new way out of my comfort zone for me, because it's one thing to write a text, and another to stand in front of it with your voice.
In this unusual journey through genres in the manner of a dance, which is my upcoming album, with this text, no matter how abstract it may be, as the author I certainly have a particularly close relationship. Therefore, appearing as a protagonist with Vladan vocally and in the music video was a completely natural choice.
But this time you designed the video yourself, and you were in charge of the direction. It is interesting that in organized countries the artist only needs to think about performance or composition or direction, while in our country one person often finishes everything. How did this task turn out for you and was the music video created in your head when the song was created?
I learned to look at situations that can be limiting from the perspective of potential challenges and learning opportunities through overcoming them, through which we overcome ourselves and our fears. The music video for this song is my debut performance as a director. The song Dolce Hera ft. Vladana Vučinić's "Sweet & Bizarre" will be released on digital platforms on Friday, October 27 at midnight. I am especially happy that the night before October 26, the premiere of the video will be part of the program of Montenegrin Fashion Week. Nowadays, it is certainly difficult to be an independent artist from the economic side, because the investments in production are really big. However, I am still a great enthusiast for the art in Montenegrin society, because for my project this time it even existed among institutions as it was supported by PAM and the Secretariat for Culture and Sport of the Capital City, both of which co-financed the complete album. I cannot hide my delight that my video project (storyboard based on my script and the complete idea of the direction) was approved by the Royal Theater "Zetski Dom" in Cetinje and the Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Property for its filming in such a special location, i.e. one of the most important institutions of the culture of Montenegro, which exudes our history and art as the oldest Montenegrin state theater. Not only did I have the entire music video as a kind of vision immediately when I wrote the lyrics of the song, that is, before its musical embodiment, but even then there was an image in my head of the unique scene and auditorium of Zetski Dom as a secret wish and hope that it would be the location of the music video. We have a counterposition of indoor actions on the beach and the sailboat of the beach bar "Pino Del Mar" in Bar, as a location that shows Montenegro through the beauty of its sea, pines and rocks, and through that the specificity of us, the protagonists, the strength of the story of this song.
You say that your goal is to use this song to direct the young generation to the exploration of art itself. Do you think that arts and general culture have been neglected even in the rush of digitization and artificial intelligence?
In my opinion, art is one of the rare human activities and activities that do not risk being threatened by artificial intelligence and digitization.
While robots will probably soon be able to replace humans in positions of dangerous occupations and difficult and risky jobs, as well as generate some creative expressions that cause delight, art is so fascinating because it arises and squats hidden in the mind and soul of the artist who reveals it to the world through his own an expression that is like a fingerprint, unique.
Digitization has again enabled a lot for musicians. Until yesterday, we had to wait at the gates of the producers to beg them to listen to our garage recording in case they would notice us and help us release a single, while today we are in a position where we can distribute our musical work to absolutely all corners of the world with one click, which one would say, alone and with a ridiculous economic investment. On the other hand, the handful of content and quasi-art is discouraging for many authors, you need to be not only authentic but also a serious lover of art and an incorrigible artistic soul and optimist in order to survive in the fight with such strong competition. Personally, I am often inspired by the idea that art generates new art. The title of the song Sweet & Bizarre reveals my inspiration from the ideas of the cult and the avant-garde in art, so this song is specifically an ode to Pop Surrealism, for which "sweet & bizarre" otherwise serves as an alternative name or a way to denote all that art that cannot be classified into existing categories. These include artists who are able to awaken in us emotions that are pleasant and bizarre at the same time (Mark Ryden, Nicoletta Ceccoli etc.) so the goal of this song is to provoke the same, as well as to direct the young generation to explore the art itself.
Bonus video:
