Đorđe Balašević

Đorđe Balašević in 2010

Đorđe Balašević (born 11 May 1953, died 19 February 2021), Singer-songwriter very popular in countries of former Yugoslavia.

Sourced

• "While we were growing up, the biggest insult for us was when dark emigrant forces called our homeland an unnatural, artificial creation. When we grew up, the biggest insult for us was when we realised that was true."
  • ("Tri posleratna druga", page 106).

• "From far away, through the sights of a sniper, they would look like Muslims, Serbs or Croats to somebody, but I approached them face to face, I saw them clearly, and trust me... They were just people..."
  • (of his first post-war Sarajevo concert)^{[citation needed]}

• "I have always been against the war; I placed my family's existence in danger because I was speaking out against primitivism and nationalism and stupidity. I didn't do that so I could perform in Croatia again one day, but so I could talk with my children as a man, when the time comes." \
  • (from an interview for Croatian television, aired on December 29 2000).^{[specific citation needed]}

• "Like Machiavelli would say, little Jovana was five months old, and I was prepared to write even "I saw Feldmarshall Göring three times", just to slip away from the barracks for two days and see my little girl and her beautiful mother."
  • Balašević on songs "Računajte na nas" and "Triput sam video Tita" ("Dodir svile", page 85).

• "I said: 'I'll come [to Sarajevo]' and they asked me if I'm afraid; headlines where I'm from were saying: 'Balašević to be assassinated in Sarajevo'. [...] Let me tell you whether I'm afraid to come to Sarajevo... If I was afraid of something, I would seek refuge in Sarajevo.
  I told them: 'Okay, I'm going and it will be the way it is, it's alright'. [They said:] 'Aren't you afraid for your life? Afraid of an assassination?' I said: If that's the price, to be in the cross-hairs of some madman for 2 days. They were in the cross-hairs for 5 years. It's a way for me to, for at least 2 days, be a citizen of Sarajevo. At least in that way."
  • Stream of consciousness monologue during 1998 concert in Sarajevo, less than two years following the end of Siege of Sarajevo.