Politics killed the radio star

Published: September 16, 2006

Video above shows the popular new wave/post punk band from Belgrade, “VIS Idoli” in the era of their biggest glory, some 20 years ago, during which they have influenced Yugoslav music immensly.

Why am i writing about them now? Call it a lack of inspiration, or just my desire to write about some lighter themes in preparation of time to come, and it seems that it will be an exciting time. But, everything is connected here, so this post may turn out to be a political one just the same.

The band consisted of four ‘main’ members with various musicians coming and going during the time they played.

‘Idoli’ split long time ago due to some creative differences and are now practialy divided in two: Vlada Divljan (guitar and vocals) and Zdenko Kolar (bass and vocals) on one side and Srdjan Saper (vocals) and Nebojsa Krstic (vocals) on the other.

While the first two are still doing their thing as the music is concerned in various projects, the other two decided that the real money is to be found in advertising, consulting and finally, well, politics.

“Which one of you was actually born with the idea that Kosovo is ours and that it’s forever going to remain ours?”

I had the chance to see Vlada Divljan last night on his concert, where he also had some sarcastic remarks on Kostunica’s recent statements regarding Kosovo, and it was even more interesting for me to see Nebojsa Krstic on TV the other day accompanying Boris Tadic and discussing Kosovo issue with, get this, no other than Condoleezza Rice herself.

Is there any point in any of this? Well, i don’t really know – but here’s what occured to me while i was listening to Divljan last night: while he was busy discussing Kosovo issue in front of a handfull of people, other part of the band discussing Kosovo issue with world’s big players, Belgrade was slowly drowning in the echoes of sounds coming from Sinan Sakic who was also having a concert last night in front of several tens of thousands people, probably making more money than all of Idoli combined and not discussing Kosovo issue at all.

You don’t know who Sinan is? Just click ‘play’ below and enjoy.

tags: Belgrade, music, Serbia, politics