From a Yugoslav to a Balkan Star and Back
Lepa Brena’s Public Figure in Transition
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4312/mz.57.2.207-225Keywords:
Yugoslav popular music, politics of music, Lepa Brena, YugonostalgiaAbstract
In this article, I deal with the public figure of the singer Lepa Brena in the context of the cultural and music politics in socialist Yugoslavia and in the war and post-war times, by focusing on her transition from a “genuine” Yugoslav star, through the period in which the Yugoslav label was not desirable, to the singer’s recent transformations in which she has been involved in the process of commodifying Yugonostalgia for repositioning her public figure in a new context.
Downloads
References
Bibliography
Baker, Catherine. “The Afterlife of Neda Ukraden: Negotiating Space and Memory through Popular Music after the Fall of Yugoslavia, 1990–2008.” In Music, Politics and Violence, edited by Susan Fast and Kip Pegley, 60–82. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2012.
Baker, Catherine. “The Concept of Turbofolk in Croatia: Inclusion/Exclusion in the Construction of National Musical Identity.” In Nation in Formation: Inclusion and Exclusion in Central and Eastern Europe, edited by Catherine Baker et al., 139–158. London: SSEES Publications, 2007.
Baker, Catherine. “The Politics of Performance: Transnationalism and its Limits in Former Yugoslav Popular Music, 1999–2004.” Ethnopolitics 5, no. 3 (2006): 275–293.
Baker, Catherine. Sounds of the Borderland: Popular Music, War and Nationalism in Croatia Since 1991. Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate, 2010.
Bošković, Aleksandar. “Yugonostalgia and Yugoslav Cultural Memory: Lexicon of YU Mythology.” Slavic Review 72, no. 1 (2013): 54–78.
Buchanan, Donna A. “Bulgarian Ethnopop along the Old Via Militaris: Ottomanism, Orientalism, or Balkan Cosmopolitanism.” In Balkan Popular Culture and the Ottoman Ecumene: Music, Image, and Regional Political Discourse, edited by Donna A. Buchanan, 225–268. Lanham: The Scarecrow Press, 2007.
Bugarski, Ranko, and Celia Hawkesworth, eds. Language in the Former Yugoslav Lands. Bloomington: Slavica Publishers, 2006.
Dragičević-Šešić, Milena. Neofolk kultura: Publika i njene zvezde. Sremski Karlovci, Novi Sad: Izdavačka knjižarnica Zorana Stojanovića, 1988.
Hofman, Ana. Glasba, Politika, Afekt:. Novo življenje partizanskih pesmi v Sloveniji. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2015.
Hofman, Ana. “Lepa Brena: Repolitization of Musical Memories on Yugoslavia.” Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU, 60, no. 1 (2012): 21–32.
Mazierska, Ewa and Zsolt Győri. “Introduction: Crossing National and Regional Borders in Eastern European Popular Music.” In Eastern European Popular Music in a Transnational Context: Beyond the Borders, edited by Ewa Mazierska and Zsolt Zsolt, 1–27. London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2019.
Nenić, Iva. “‘My Yuga, My Dearest Flower’: The Yugoslav Legacy of Newly Composed Yugoslav Music Revisited.” In Made in Yugoslavia: Studies in Yugoslav Music, edited by Danijela Š. Beard and Ljerka V. Rasmussen, 133–142. London: Routledge, 2020.
Perković, Ante. Sedma republika: Pop kultura u Yu raspadu. Beograd and Zagreb: Službeni glasnik and Novi liber, 2011.
Petrov, Ana. Jugoslovenska muzika bez Jugoslavije: Koncerti kao mesta sećanja. Beograd: Fakultet za medije i komunikacije, 2016.
Petrov, Ana. “The Songs We Love to Sing and the History We Like to Remember: Tereza Kesovija’s Come Back in Serbia.” Southeastern Europe 39, no. 2 (2015): 192–214.
Petrov, Ana. “Yugonostalgia as a Kind of Love: Politics of Emotional Reconciliations through Yugoslav Popular Music.” The Journal of Humanities 7, no. 4 (2018). https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/7/4/119.
Rasmussen, Ljerka Vidić. “From Source to Commodity: Newly Composed Folk Music of Yugoslavia.” Popular Music 14, no. 2 (1995): 241–256.
Tumbas, Jasmina. “Yugonostalgia.” Art Monthly 425 (2019). Accessed February 3, 2020. https://www.artmonthly.co.uk/magazine/site/issue/april-2019.
Velikonja, Mitja. “Povratak otpisanih: Emancipatorski potencijali jugonostalgije.” In Zid je mrtav, živeli zidovi: Pad Berlinskog zida i raspad Jugoslavije, edited by Ivan Čolović, 366–398. Beograd: XX. vek, 2015.
*******
Media Sources
Gligorijević, Jovana. “Imam pesmu da vam pevam.” Vreme. December 26, 2019. Accessed March 2, 2020. https://www.vreme.com/cms/view.php?id=1742999.
Gvozdenović, Nataša. “Istorija, glamur i pustoš.” Vreme. December 26, 2019. Accessed March 2, 2020. https://www.vreme.com/cms/view.php?id=1743002.
“Jugoslovenka u areni: Publika oduševljena, generali zgroženi.” Moje vrijeme. December 15, 2019. Accessed March 9, 2020. https://www.mojevrijeme.hr/magazin/2019/12/jugoslovenka-u-areni-publika-odusevljena-generali-zgrozeni-brena-narusava-hrvatski-suverenitet/.
“Jugoslovenka u Zagrebu: Da li je bilo rano za ovu pesmu.” December 19, 2019. Accessed March 1, 2020. https://www.rts.rs/page/stories/sr/story/11/region/3779440/jugoslovenka-u-zagrebu--da-li-je-bilo-rano-za-ovu-pesmu.html.
“Lepa Brena kupila stan u Beogradu na vodi.” Accessed March 10, 2020. https://mondo.rs/Zabava/Zvezde-i-tracevi/a1293520/Lepa-Brena-kupila-stan-u-Beogradu-na-vodi-za-450.000-evra.html.
“Lepa Brena prodžekt.” Accessed December 30, 2019. https://teatar.bitef.rs/Predstave/545/LEPA-BRENA-PRODzEKT.shtml/lang_type=lat.
“Lepa Brena: Nisam ni Hrvatica ni Srpkinja, ja sam Jugoslovenka.” Index HR. December 9, 2008. Accessed March 1, 2020. https://www.index.hr/magazin/clanak/lepa-brena-nisam-ni-hrvatica-ni-srpkinja-ja-sam-jugoslavenka/412754.aspx.
“Lepa Brena širi bratstvo i jedinstvo.” Kurir. April 15, 2018. Accessed December 15, 2019. https://www.kurir.rs/stars/3031301/video-lepa-brena-siri-bratstvo-i-jedinstvo-folk-diva-na-turneji-po-americi-rasirila-zastavu-sfrj-i-zapevala-jugoslovenku?ref=related_box.
“Lepa Brena u Brčkom 1994. godine.” In Otisak.ba. Accessed April 10, 2019. http://www.otisak.ba/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9190:lepa-brena-u-brkom-1994godine-foto&catid=31:bih&Itemid=46.
Matić, Đorđe. “Lepa Brena.” In Leksikon Yu mitologije. Accessed March 1, 2010. http://www.leksikon-yu-mitologije.net/lepa-brena/.
“Slika društva kroz fenomen Lepe Brene.” In N1 info. Accessed March 10, 2020. http://rs.n1info.com/Kultura/a551738/Slika-drustva-kroz-fenomen-Lepe-Brene.html.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Ana Petrov

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors are confirming that they are the authors of the submitting article, which will be published (print and online) in journal Musicological Annual by Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia). Author’s name will be evident in the article in journal. All decisions regarding layout and distribution of the work are in hands of the publisher.
- Authors guarantee that the work is their own original creation and does not infringe any statutory or common-law copyright or any proprietary right of any third party. In case of claims by third parties, authors commit their self to defend the interests of the publisher, and shall cover any potential costs.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.