ĐORĐE BALAŠEVIĆ (born May 11, 1953 in Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Serbia, then Yugoslavia) is a prominent Serbian singer-songwriter. Balašević started his career in the 1977 as the member of the pop rock band Žetva, before leaving to form the pop rock band Rani Mraz. After releasing two albums, Rani Mraz disbanded, and Balašević started a successful solo career, spanning up to the present. While initially performing pop rock, in his later career he often used elements of rock, chanson and folk music, while his lyrics often dealt with humorous or political- and social-related themes. He started writing poetry in primary school. He left high school in the third year (because, in his words, he hated subjects like mathematics, physics and chemistry) but managed to get a high school diploma as part-time student and passed the preliminary exam for the university study of geography. He never graduated from the university, but instead joined the band Žetva in 1977. After Balašević joined the group, Žetva recorded a tango hit single "U razdeljak te ljubim", which was sold in more than 180,000 copies, a huge success by Yugoslav standards. In 1978 he left Žetva and together with Verica Todorović formed a band Rani Mraz. The band had its début at the music festival "Opatija '78" with the song "Moja prva ljubav". The band had numerous lineup changes. The same year former Suncokret members Biljana Krstić and Bora Đorđević joined the band, and together they recorded "Računajte na nas" (written by Balašević), a song celebrating the young generation's adoption of the communist revolution. The song became popular with both the communist authorities and the people, becoming an anthem of the Yugoslav youth. After just few months of cooperation, Verica Todorović and Bora Đorđević left the band (Đorđević forming his famous hard rock band Riblja Čorba), so Biljana Krstić and Balašević recorded Rani Mraz's first album "Mojoj mami umesto maturske slike u izlogu" on their own. At the "Split '79" Music festival Balašević won the first prize with the single "Panonski mornar". A few months later Rani Mraz sold out Belgrade's Dom Sindikata Hall eight times in a row. In 1980 Balašević served in the Yugoslav People's Army in Zagreb and Požarevac where he had a role in the TV show "Vojnici", but also found time to write song "Zbog tebe" for Zdravko Čolić and lyrics for several songs recorded on Srebrna Krila album "Sreo sam ljubav iz prve pjesme". By the end of 1980 Rani Mraz released their second and final album with a symbolic title "Odlazi cirkus" and the band officially dissolved shortly afterwards. The album reaffirmed Balašević's status and delivered several hit songs, one of them being "Priča o Vasi Ladačkom" which went on to become one of Balašević's signature songs. He started his solo career in 1982 with the album "Pub" which was well received. Shortly after he had a role in the TV series "Pop Ćira i pop Spira" recorded after Stevan Sremac's novel of the same title. During the following 1982/1983 tour he sold out Belgrade's Sava Center hall for the first time. His Sava Center concerts would become his trademark in years to follow. The next two albums "Celovečernji the Kid", released in 1983 and "003", released in 1985 followed the same path of success and Balašević established himself as respectable singer-songwriter. The next album, "Bezdan", released in 1986, was a milestone in Balašević's career. The record was produced by Đorđe Petrović and arrangement was done by Aleksandar Dujin. Those two would be the key associates of Balašević for the next 20 years and substantially influence his work. They became the backbone of Balašević's supporting band The Unfuckables and a part of his stage appearance. The next album was his first live album "U tvojim molitvama - Balade". The album was recorded during his concerts in Zetra hall in Sarajevo, Ledena dvorana and Šalata in Zagreb, Sava Centar in Beograd and Studio M in Novi Sad in 1986 and 1987. Apart from his well-known previous songs, the album featured a previously unrecorded track "Samo da rata ne bude". The song features a large children's choir which, together with lyrics warning about the war (which indeed will start three years later), delivers a hymn of pacifists throughout, then still existing, SFR Yugoslavia. The same sensation of imminent disaster predominates his next album "Panta Rei" released in 1988. The song "Requiem" was dedicated to late Josip Broz Tito, while satire "Soliter" caricatures Yugoslavia as a high-rise in which only facade still holds while foundations slide. The guitarist Elvis Stanić took part in recording of the album "Tri posleratna druga" in 1989, and the violin and saxophone player Josip "Kiki" Kovač joined The Unfuckables on the album "Marim ja..." released in 1991. As the Yugoslav wars began, Balašević withdrew to isolation. He was forced to stop collaborating with Croatian artists such as Elvis Stanić and his tempo of one album per year was disrupted. His next album "Jedan od onih života" released in 1993 featured songs such as "Krivi smo mi" and "Čovek sa mesecom u očima" which heavily criticised and denounced the ongoing war. After a long pause, he issued "Na posletku" in 1996. The change in sentiment was obvious: "Na posletku" was mostly folk rock-oriented. Nearly all instruments on this album are acoustic, the violin becomes dominant and woodwind instruments are heavily used. During the 1990s Balašević engaged in broad criticism of the current political situation in Serbia, Slobodan Milošević and Socialist Party of Serbia. "Devedesete", released in 2000, was his most politically involved album. Balašević openly made fun of Milošević with the song "Legenda o Gedi Gluperdi", criticized police officers who defended the corrupt system by confronting demonstrating youth in "Plava balada", looked back to the 1990s with disgust in the title song "Devedesete", supplied young demonstrators with an anthem "Živeti slobodno", reaching out to his lost friends in Croatia and Bosnia with "Sevdalinka", but still preserving patriotism with "Dok gori nebo nad Novim Sadom", a song about the 1999 NATO bombing of Novi Sad. This album clearly marked the atmosphere in Serbia in the year when Slobodan Milošević lost power. After this open engagement in politics, he returned to romance. The album "Dnevnik starog momka" released in 2001 comprises 12 songs, each having a female name as its title, and each addressing a different girl. Balašević repeatedly stated that the girls and songs are pure fiction, and the song titles form the acrostic "Olja je najbolja", Olja being the nickname of his wife Olivera Balašević. His latest album "Rani mraz" released in 2004 follows the folk rock style developed on "Na posletku". The album's subtitle was "Priča o Vasi Ladačkom.../Muzika iz nesnimljenog filma" referring to Rani Mraz 1980 ballad "Priča o Vasi Ladačkom" which went on to become one of Balašević's signature pieces, and to the film which should have been based on the song and filmed by Balašević and actor and film director Ljubiša Samardžić. (from wikipedia)
