Another round of the same discussion about Marko Perković Tompson – that's how one could briefly describe the situation that has been filling media columns in Croatia at the intersection of entertainment and politics in recent weeks. However, we shouldn't expect the dust to settle so quickly this time.
In less than a month and a half, on March 28th, the final night of Porin, Croatia's biggest pop music award, will take place, and Thompson is among the main favorites to win in several categories, especially for Song of the Year. The latest news is that he has also successfully scheduled a mega-concert at the Zagreb Hippodrome for next summer.
Massive support from the public and some politicians at home
The current public frictions related to his ideological preferences will not help him at all. Moreover, this singer has gained his considerable fame precisely thanks to his extreme national-rightist outbursts and the divisions of the general public on this occasion.
From his musical adaptation of the Ustasha salute "For Homeland - Ready!", to his performance of literally butchering and anti-Serbian lyrics of the same provenance from World War II, to lyrics about territorial claims towards neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina, he has long been the main symbol of the pop culture of the corresponding political current in Croatia.
Responsible state structures usually turn a blind eye to this. Of the even remotely relevant actors in Croatia, few have openly advocated unreserved criticism of Thompson's ideology, as if they had given up on conflict on the issue in advance.
This was also seen in the latest events, where some of the highest representatives of the ruling party once again clearly sided with him, certainly keeping in mind the upcoming local elections.
It seems, therefore, that any confrontation of this kind suits Thompson's marketing, because it provokes defiance among his supporters towards the political establishment. The latter, even when they are relatively close to him ideologically, usually do not want to support him openly - because of the singer's unpleasant reputation abroad.
And, of course, not in Serbia or Bosnia and Herzegovina, but further west, where his concerts were announced and then banned – in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Slovenia, etc.
And the handball player's welcome confirmed: Thompson is not a marginal player
This time, all those disputes were renewed when the Croatian handball team wanted to see and hear Thompson at their celebration in Zagreb. He entertained them at the reception after the World Championship final in Oslo, from where they returned on February 3 with a silver medal.
The public space immediately heated up; bans and boycotts were called for, both for the reception and for Porin. However, the star of the right was not shaken, and the reason is obvious – the exceptional, massive support of the audience, and probably its most motivated part.
This is confirmed by the fact that Thompson is definitely not a marginal or an outsider. He is undoubtedly part of the elite, mainstream Croatian music scene, no matter how hard the more liberal parts of society find it to accept that fact.
Therefore, it would be unfair to generally claim that Thompson alone normalized far-right political positions and reaffirmed Ustashaism, the historical Croatian version of fascism.
"The phenomenon of Marko Perković Thompson should be viewed as a phenomenon that is not only musical, although in principle it can be applied to all other musicians or musical styles, given that politics and culture in one way or another permeate all artistic creation," Krešimir Krolo, a sociologist from the University of Zadar, who has analyzed this showbiz phenomenon and its reception in previous years, especially among young people, told us about it.
"When it comes to specific political engagement, or rather," he continues, "in the context of Thompson, the advocacy of nationalist and traditional narratives, then his presence in public space is an inevitable point of value and identity disputes."
A genre also characteristic of other Eastern European countries
Krolo notes that ethnic-national identity is not unique to Croatia and Thompson, but rather an almost universal (sub)cultural genre, especially in Eastern European countries. On the other hand, did the retraditionalization of these societies not occur due to a growing sense of existential insecurity due to their sudden opening to the global market?
"Thompson and similar musicians function as a kind of romanticization of traditional national identity in the face of globalization processes and fears that this identity could disappear in some culturally amorphous mass of 'endless' freedoms. What is certainly interesting is that we are currently living in a time that is diametrically opposed to the sense of threat that radiates from Thompson's songs. Because, at the same time, the rise of nationalist, far-right and imperial policies and identities on the international scene is clearly visible."
What is interesting, however, is the absurdity that would emerge tomorrow in the conflict between "big" and "small" nations, Krolo notes. "The 'small' Thompsons would then have to give way to the 'big' ones."
And we should not forget that they achieved their affirmation and rise in the period of what they sing against: the value dominance of liberalism and international law.
Therefore, Crolo does not rule out the possibility that in the foreseeable future there will be a "sobering up" from Thompson's narratives, if Thucydides's principle that "the great do what they want, and the small suffer what they must" is realized on the geopolitical scene.
"If you don't know what happened" - according to Thompson
In this context, the title message of Thompson's nominated song for the upcoming Porin is somewhat paradoxical: "If you don't know what happened."
It is strange, namely, that after so much and so successful public glorification of the values that Thompson holds dear, one can assume that someone still does not know "what happened", because that would mean that the opposing political side was more successful in concealing the alleged historical or timeless truths that Thompson promotes as an unquestionable star of the pop scene.
However, the secret of his success also lies in the fact that his poems function as a continuous process of exposing external and internal threats to Croatia – regardless of reality. This shows that the explanation for Thompson's success should not be sought in the immediate real situation, but in the broader social and political context.
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