arts
Neven Tunjić and Selma Droce are looking for a big thumbs up when they take to the stage at Musicport in Whitby this weekend.
The duo, who are part of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s #1 sevdah group Divanhana, will be treating the audience to four or five new songs from their forthcoming album.
“We have not yet released the songs, so we plan to introduce them to the audiences during this leg of our UK tour. It will be a unique experience for us because we are going to play around 20 to 25 minutes of totally new material. So hopefully, we will get the thumbs up from the Whitby audience,” Neven tells me.
Neven and Selma are both enthusiastic representatives for Divanhana, a group of students from the Sarajevo Music Academy who formed it at the beginning of 2009.
The group has grown in strength to become a Balkan supergroup, performing traditional Balkan songs and music with new recognisable arrangements influenced by jazz, pop, and classical music. Divanhana is a master of sevdah music, the urban traditional music of Bosnia & Herzegovina, aka the ‘Balkan blues.’
Selma stresses that the group performs traditional sevdah music, which serves as the foundation for their craft and incorporates other musical styles they enjoy.
“It’s one of the oldest traditions for music in Europe, and we get a lot of inspiration from that as we play a lot of sevdah music during our live shows,” Selma says.
Nevin explains that the group is creating music that resembles traditional music composition, with the aim of inspiring and encouraging those who identify with it.
“It’s such a positive vibe, which we need at the moment, given the challenging times we are living through. We are witnesses to lots of terrible things happening across the world. However, the connection people feel through our music and their sense of togetherness is truly inspiring,” according to Neven.
He wonderfully explains the group’s goals, which include presenting an authentic representation of everything present in their region of eastern Europe. They want to unite all the differences and possibilities that we have, so when the audience listens to their music, they can actually hear a lot about the culture and the lives there.
Selma interrupts, suggesting that ‘variety’ might be a better word. “Bosnia is like a park where many different countries exist,” she remarks. “At one point in our history, the Ottoman Empire ruled over all of us. After that, the Austrian government came to power, leaving a lasting impact on our culture. Today, Sarajevo embodies a blend of western and eastern influences.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina’s people went to war in the 1990s, but in recent years—maybe the last two years—we are growing our audience, and we’re getting more and more people from Western Europe and from all around the world interested.”
Nevin adds that the group played a tour of Australia for the first time, and there was positive energy. “Music can always bring us some kind of beauty in our lives, so I think that is how we felt over the last few years, and we are really in the place where we enjoy our career and making music that we love. Hopefully, others will find enjoyment in our music, and when they do, it’s a genuine experience, unlike purchasing something.
In an interview with the cultural website Brno Music Friendly City, Neven explained the meaning behind the sixth album’s title, ‘Zavrzlama’, which translates to ‘knot’ or some sort of mess’ when numerous elements become entangled. However, it can also metaphorically represent everyday life in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where individuals from diverse religious and national backgrounds coexist.
Divanhana’s show is known as “a magnet for world-class musical diversity” for this reason.
Selma is the group’s vocalist and describes each concert as a new beginning and a new end. When I ask her what she means, she explains that it’s related to everything we’ve been discussing about connecting with people.
“When I’m on stage, I want to give everything I have—my experience, my musical tastes, my emotions, and sevdah, as it’s such a beautiful genre; it gives me so many opportunities to think about almost any topic that was related back then to ordinary life. It’s a unique experience.”
The duo hopes that they can transport their Whitby audience on a journey to Bosnia and showcase the positives about their country—the beauty of the mountains, rivers, women, customs, and history.
“Our little country in Eastern Europe is so beautiful.”
“The Balkans are more than just trumpet players, and our aim is to show our people that there’s not only trumpet music from the Balkans; there’s also beautiful traditional music from Serbia, Macedonia, and Croatia.”
This is Divanhana’s first tour in England, and they are really looking forward to it. “It is an honour to play in the UK,” they say in unison.
With Neven adding: “We grew up listening to British music, which has greatly influenced our creative approach; we hope to perform our best shows and receive positive feedback for all our new songs.”
Hear Divanhana at Whitby’s Musicport festival as they headline Saturday night, October 26th. More details here