LJILJANA BUTTLER
04/03/2008 - By http://www.worldmusicnet.net
LJILJANA BUTTLER was born in Belgrade, her father was an accordion virtuoso and her mother a Croatian singer.
LJILJANA BUTTLER was born in Belgrade, her father was an accordion virtuoso and her mother a Croatian singer. But her father left soon after she was born and her mother had to support herself and her child, singing in bars. They settled in Bijeljina, a small town in Bosnia, but one night her mother fell ill and Ljiljana went to the café and said “My mother can’t come tonight, she’s sick. Please let me sing.” She was only 12 but had learned at her mother’s side. A year later her mother left and Ljiljana was on her own – she continued singing in cafes to support herself through school. Then she headed for Belgrade. “I started singing in bars in Skadalia (the famous restaurant quarter, a sort of Balkan Montmartre)”, she remembers. “The atmosphere was fantastic. The people laughed and cried during the music. That always inspired me – that and strong slivovice (plum brandy), lots of sad loves and lots of emotion and romance. Sometimes we made recordings for Radio Belgrade. They simply came to the cafes, listened to the music and if they liked it, asked the musicians back to the radio to record”.
From 1980 Ljiljana started doing concerts and became well-known on TV until the political and musical mood started changing with so-called turbo-folk providing the soundtrack for the Milosevic era. “Even before the war, I realised that somehow the joy had vanished and the Balkan men were no longer interested in love stories. Suddenly it became important to wear a short skirt and flash your cleavage. The shorter the skirt, the better singer you were thought to be. I realised my time was over. It was a time for weapons and hatred. It affected me terribly and the war that followed has left scars that will last forever.”
In Mostar, they are attempting to heal one of those scars. The bridge is being rebuilt. Whether it can ever be the same as it was, who knows? But Mostar Sevdah Reunion, the group that symbolises the artistic and the ethnic values of Bosnia more than any other, is intending to celebrate it. When it re-opens next year, Ljiljana is keen to be a part of it: “We have survived this dreadful war and good songs endure. What I can see in Mostar now is an enduring humanity and while it’s there, it’s possible to make music. There’s an old Serbian Gypsy song which says “There’s a song in the soul of every Gypsy as long as they’re alive.” Well, that’s how it is with me.” (courtesy of Simon Broughton, Songlines 2002)
….A jewel from a war-torn land Andrew Cronshaw (FRoots)
….Powerful, energetic, exciting, fantastic album (Le Monde, France)
….Ljiljana Buttler is one of the great re-discovered voices of Eastern Europe.
Deep, dark and distinctive. Her recording with the Mostar Sevdah Reunion band,
“The Mother of Gypsy Soul” (Snail Records) is one of my CDs of the year
and impresses everyone I've played it to. Simon Broughton (Songlines)
….Ljiljana Buttler’s debut CD is delicious: Ljiljana’s deep, almost masculine, voice
picks out words and tosses them into the air with effortless grace. And the
instrumental backing by Mostar Sevdah Reunion and legendary trumpet virtuoso
Boban Marcović is inspired: the musicians spoon out the notes with a tangible,
almost erotic, delicacy while Ljiljana sails above them, her voice caressing the listener.
Garth Cartwright (FRoots)
