NOSTALGIC AND EMOTIONAL NIGHT ON THE SUMMER STAGE

 

With a quiet humming of the audience who filled the Summer Stage to the last seat, gracefully, somewhat nostalgically and certainly emotionally did a concert titled The Three Divas go by at this year’s KotorArt. Radojka Šverko, Gabi Novak and Tereza Kesovija, who for decades have marked the ex-Yugoslav music scene and more, performed on Monday, August 6th at Don Branko’s Music Days. Accompanied by guitarist Ante Gelo, bass player Robert Vrbančić and pianist Matija Dedić, they sang separately, each one her own section of the songs, and at the end, they performed together the Odlazak song, which was composed by Arsen Dedić on Tin Ujević's poetry.

 Radojka Šverko began her performance with the Kud Plovi Ovaj Brod song, with which she won at the festival in Rio de Janeiro in 1970, thus experiencing a career turning point. The attention of the audience she received at the Split Festival the same year, and later at other Yugoslav festivals, has continued to this day. Her performance at KotorArt she continued with the Lanterna, Ništa Nova, C´est la vie hits, just to be singing in the end the Život Moj song by Zvonko Špišić, which she once revealed to be a biographical one. In her address to the audience, the singer said that she was happy for her performance in Kotor, where she had performed several years ago, and that she wanted to leave a trail with her songs and singing, as all artists aspire. 

Her delight to be in Kotor again expressed Gabi Novak, as well, who recalled the last concert she had held with Arsen Dedić in Kotor, precisely at Don Branko's Music Days. The rememberance of Arsen she continued with music, with the Vino i Gitare song, for which Arsen wrote the lyrics, as well as his Ono Sve Što Znaš o Meni song. Then, the songs that were listened to were On Me Voli Na Svoj Način and Nada. The biggest interaction of the audience was brought by the last interpretation, that is, by the Pamtim Samo Sretne Dane song, which Gabi first performed at Zagrebfest in 1979, where she as well had started her festival career two decades earlier.

Her performance, Tereza Kesovija started with the Nježne Strune Mandoline song, the award-winning song from the Split Festival in 1975, which immediately arouse the positive reactions of the Kotor audience. In addition to the old hits, such as Na Stradunu, Prijatelji Stari, Gdje Ste, Nono, Larina Pjesma, with which in 1966 the singer received the attention of the French audience, Tereza also sang her more recent song, Oči Duše (2016). Still, she ended her performance with an older song – thanks to the Moja Posljednja i Prva Ljubav song at Mesam in 1986, she was declared the singer of Yugoslavia, and that status, being one of the best, judging by the reaction of the audience, she still holds.