What’s a traditional sevdah singer-songwriter doing on an urban culture website like Stocktown? What’s nature got to do with culture and why “just” a voice in a world full of a multitude of alternate realities and “fake news”?
From Europe’s most sizzling East-meets-West boiling pot, where artillery fumes from the 90’s war can still be sensed in the air – Božo Vrećo’s “weapon of choice” is sevdah.
“Sevdah, Bosnia’s traditional music which sings of loss, sadness, and heartache, has been experiencing a resurgence in popularity since the civil war of the 1990s. “, writes Tea Hadziristić for the Balkanist.
Bosnia and Hercegovina needed him, the entire Balkans are desperately in awe with him and the world awaits him with open arms. Welcome Božo Vrećo, a singer-songwriter who blends the new with the old as he successfully fuses the Middle Ages traditional music genre from Bosnia and Hercegovina with the subtle nuances of contemporary identity politics.
Wrapped up in queer aesthetics from head to toe, Božo Vrećo showers us with a purifying force of realness. We get painfully reminded of the highest goal of our existence in being oneself and owning our condition in all its joys and sorrows and ultimately, uniqueness.
Self-made Balcan Babe factor: 10/10
Video credits:
Written, sang, choreographed, all that magic by: Božo Vrećo
Director: Jaime Olabarri Powell
Božo Vrećo/music & lyrics
Indigo/ production & mastering
Mario Ilić/director
Mario Klein/fotography
Naida Djekić/make-up
Eldin Nuhić/hair
Nenad Kovačević/studio
