- artist:MOSTAR SEVDAH REUNION
- featured artist:Muntu Valdo, Pedro el Granaíno
- region:Balkan
- release year:2025
- style(s):Sevdah, Crossover
- country:Bosnia and Herzegovina
- formats:Audio File / Digital, CD (Compact Disc)
- record posted by:Snail Records
- label:Snail Records
- publisher:Snail Records
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A QUARTER OF A CENTURY OF THE MOSTAR SEVDAH REUNION INSTITUTION
From an idea to the Institution. From the inception of a musical project to the realization of a non-official mobile embassy for culture of Mostar and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and even the whole Balkans. A pioneer's path, long, uncertain and thorny. Organic, self-raised, mostly without the understanding and support of the institutions, it got accepted where it was most important – primarily among common people, in the people's ears and hearts. Both among domestic and foreign people, who at first didn't understand words but did understand – the emotion. Mostar Sevdah Reunion (MSR)!
In front of us, there is a new album „Bosa Mara“, a jubilee album, which is coming out on the 25th anniversary of the birth of the first album by the Mostarans named after the name of the band – Mostar Sevdah Reunion. Before introducing the album, I think it is important to mention its predecessor, the album „Lady Sings the Balkan Blues“, which introduced the new vocal of the band – Antonija Batinić. The album has won several prestigious awards, among others, the first place on the World Music Charts of Europe, as well as the Transglobal World Music Charts, which chose this album as the best European world-music album for the year 2023. As an icing on the cake, there was also an award by a famous British journal Songlines for world music, which proclaimed MSR as the best group in the year 2024.
The album „Bosa Mara“ which is in front of you was made by MSR for their own soul. They had never adhered to the on-going trends, populism and commercialization haven't been their thing, but on this album, they have additionally eased up on predictions. „I guess that after 25 years we can make an album beyond all expectations, which might be a step into something new, which might open some new chapters in the prospective development of the band,“ says Dragi Šestić, the owner of the idea, producer and manager of the group.
The album contains the most various things. Some lifeless and long-forgotten Bosnian-Herzegovinian sevdalinkas have been brought back to life, such as „In the Trebinje town“ and „Bosa Mara“, and the famous sevdalinka „The Star’s Chasing the Moon“ has been refreshed.
Apart from the sevdalinkas, a Croatian Međimurje balad „Daj mi Bože joči sokolove“ has been rearranged, then the poem by a famous poet Jovan Jovanović Zmaj „ A što ti je mila kćeri“, and also, the Mediterranian got included by the song „Djevojka je zelen bor sadila“.
They also rearranged the cult song Besame Mucho! Perhaps it is excessive to mention, but because of the new generations and reminders of the source and its maker, the song Besame Mucho was written in 1940 by a Mexican author Consuelo Velázquez. It was first performed by Emilio Tuero, but in 1943 it became a worldwide hit when an American singer Sunny Skylar recorded the version in the English language. MSR is presenting it in Bosnian, with a domestic version of the text made by the band's solo-guitar player Mišto Petrović.
They also presented Albanian and Kosovan music ethno heritage with the song „Zatvorena kapija“, also with a new version of the text in the local language. In a very interesting performance, they also did a traditional Roma song „Čaje Šukarije“ which became famous and which made famous the legendary Macedonian Roma singer Esma Redžepova, with whom MSR had a successful collaboration. Namely, Esma was a guest singer on the first MSR album and this song is a little homage made for her and all the joint performances that they have had with her. It is brought in the flamenco style, with the clapping of hands, as a duet with a famous Andalusian singer Pedro El Granaíno!
A special surprise of the album is a duet with a Cameroonian artist Muntu Valdo and the song „E Titi Lambo“ in a bilingual version. Perhaps this song is the best announcement of a wider MSR framework and the beginning of collaboration with international performers, with the aim of bringing different cultures closer and combining the things that have been rarely combined so far.
The album also brings something new, apart from the traditional songs, there is one song written by an author. It was made in the collaboration with a Roma artist, musician and poet Dragan Ristić (KAL) who wrote this song called „Mesem Chori“ to the music of the MSR's guitarist Mišo Petrović.
The old gang has probably never sounded better, and this is proven, among other things, by the previously mentioned international recognition. We introduced the singer Antonija Batinić in the review of the previous album, it is available on the album's cover, as well as on the WOMEX webpage. Perhaps one should add, she is the band's youngest main vocal and has received most international awards so far.
And the musicians. It is tricky even to try to describe the artistry of each of them individually to someone who is not a musician. Mišo Petrović, Sandi Duraković, Senad Seno Trnovac, Ivan Vanja Radoja, Gabrijel Gaba Prusina and Marko Jakovljević are „de facto artists“. Both as a group and as individuals. Also, they were the core band which played on this jubilee album, and they were joined by several other top musicians: the already above-mentioned Cameroonian artist Muntu Valdo and Spanish singer Pedro El Granaino, then Miguel El Cheyenne (percussions) who is also Spanish, a Greek bugler Dominico Ntoumos, and domestic musicians, an accordion player Boris Vuga and Djeno Mujić (percussions).
The album's cover is illustrated with an old board, just as the boards which used to mark old Mostar streets. It is still early for a street, the band is still very alive and has a lot new to bring (which is proven by the album in front of us), but a rich past, long presence and productivity of the band deserve to be permanently marked in the music history of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the whole Balkans. Bands from former Yugoslavia that have made such international recognition are rare, and MSR is the first one that made a brand of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian sevdalinka and sevdah as a separate music genre on the international scene. With this album, they have certainly given another big contribution to the process which should make sevdalinka finally included in the UNESCO's list of non-material cultural heritage.
25th anniversary probably deserves a more detailed chronological presentation of the band's beginning, development, challenges and accomplishment, but the space for the album's review is too small to summarize such a rich musical and biographical path in the given framework. That path certainly deserves a thick book or a documentary series. I hope that in the near future there will be a chance for such a record. Until then, we are listening to the album Bosa Mara, another musical tombstone brought by the MSR. And we enjoy!
Gang, happy 25th anniversary, may you be alive and in good health!
A quarter of a century, quite something (hardly negligible)!
Rusmir Pobrić