Love is needed by everyone.

Serbian producer SevdahBABY has repeatedly shown throughout his career how he can breathe new sound and contemporary production into old Yugoslav hits, but he has also built collaborations with numerous names in the entertainment industry. However, one collaboration holds a particularly emotional weight for him.

It is about working with Beti Djordjevic, who, as he points out, left a strong impression on him and whose voice had a special artistic significance. This collaboration, as he states, goes beyond the usual musical framework and represents one of the most important experiences in his career so far.

"Beti and I met at Beovizija in 2018, we shared a wardrobe, as well as a hatred for poor organization, endless waits at rehearsals, false authorities, and shouted names," he recalls of his first meeting with this Yugoslav diva.

A few years later, in 2023, they released their first joint single, "After All, a Sad End," which was not supposed to be the end of their collaboration. They were preparing the new single "Kosmic Love" together, but Beti passed away, and Milan was considering whether to continue working on it. However, with the support of Beti's family, the video for this song was completed and presented to the public, and the song "Kosmic Love" was included on Stanković's new EP, which is named after this song. Milan says about what he will remember not only for his collaboration with the diva, but also for this song:

"Beti was cheerful, very modest and knew how to approach some of these boring situations with great humor," emphasizes SevdahBABY, and talks about the new EP and the collaboration with Đorđević for "Vijesti".

Considering that Beti Đorđević was established and recognized decades before you started making music, how did she experience your musical expression and the blend of genres that you cultivate within the SevdahBABY project?

From the beginning, Betty was interested in something new, modern, and that was exactly the reason she invited me to do our first song together, “After All, a Sad End”. I loved strange combinations from the beginning, previously they were folk song lyrics in a funk and disco style, and with Betty the challenge was that combination of generations and styles. She was so direct that, I admit, at times I forgot how big a star she was and how big she was. But when she sang, I would immediately return to reality.

After Betty passed away, you considered whether to release this recording at all. Her granddaughter persuaded you to do so. How emotional was it for you to hear the recording again, work on it, and above all, play it to your family? How much does their support mean to you?

Well, I wouldn't say she persuaded me, but she certainly provided me with tremendous support and gave me great freedom to finish the video according to my ideas. That meant a lot to me because it's true that I hesitated for a few months, because it wasn't the same for me, without Beti. It wasn't planned that way, but okay, death is the only certain thing in life and you have to accept that. Working on the video, despite the fact that I wasn't even a fraction as close to Beti as anyone from her family, was very emotional and difficult at times. But it also filled me with many beautiful feelings, love above all, of course. It was touching to watch those recordings that we made last fall in her part of town, Kotež, in her apartment, but okay, after a few days of editing I somehow got used to it and started to enjoy the work in progress.

In addition to “Kosmičke ljubavi” (Cosmic Love), the track “Ima nas” (There Are Us) also found its place on the EP. This is another track that you have signed, and it has a strong activist spirit. The song is there to testify to the time in which it was created, and through the “Vidiq” project you also criticized everything that is happening. It is also interesting that these songs that were created five or ten years ago are still relevant. How devastating is it sometimes that we in the Balkans, when it comes to activism, can sing about the same topics for decades?

Well, you know, I'm aware that sometimes the fight seems futile, that the easiest thing would be to go to the "dark side", but if your family and closest environment have built into you some programs that don't allow that, then the only thing you can focus on is winning. Let those on the dark side do their thing, we'll do ours. It really is that simple, everyone has their own job.

Artists have an obligation to respond to social and political processes through their work, but many still choose to adapt for the sake of more work, projects, and politicians taking sides. As someone who openly supports change, you yourself have had problems because of it, your performances have been canceled. But how much more revolting is it for you to continue to criticize social phenomena through art?

As I said, there was never another option. I started making music out of a great love, so great that I left my degree in architectural engineering. So selling, or cajoling the powerful, or even worse, adapting my music to the brutal demands of the market are not options for me. Fortunately, lately, many people, mostly those in their mature years, recognize my attitude. I would like some new kids to discover my music, that would recharge my batteries.

The third single on the EP is “Na te mislim” for which you used Isa Beljčević's vocals recorded on wax cylinders in 1938. How demanding was the process of finding, digitizing, and restoring such old audio material so that it could even be used in a modern production?

In fact, ten years ago I came across an online archive of already digitized recordings from wax cylinders from all over the world. And that was fascinating in itself, but at some point I thought “let’s type Balkans, Serbia, Yugoslavia into the search”, to see what was being recorded in our region. And I came across several interesting recordings, among which was this version of “Na te mislim”. With the help of software I extracted the solo vocal, which gave me the opportunity to come up with a completely new harmonization, to completely change the atmosphere of the original music. And I would say that I created something interstellar, as if that voice came from the other side of the universe. I hope that the listeners will have that trip too (laughs).

The song exists in two versions, winter and summer, and they bring a different sound. In the winter version, you almost kept the original version, while the summer version is in your recognizable style. Do you think that one of the most beautiful love songs will be more easily accessible to a younger audience, who are not used to such declarations of love and such lyrics in songs, through the summer version?

For years now, I've been hoping that my music will finally touch the very young again, even though they are bombarded with arrogant lyrics and uninventive instrumentals. But I also have some understanding for them - this is a post-truth time, nothing is believed in, which naturally causes fear and insecurity. That's why everyone pretends to be much ruder, more ruthless, more selfish, than they really are. And that has become socially accepted, and all of that, repeated ad nauseam (until disgust), leads to the state our societies are in today. And the truth is very simple - everyone does it to be accepted, which is completely insane, because the only thing everyone needs, and they barely dare to admit and say, is love.