Spring of festivals

The expansion of festivals in Yugoslavia in the late fifties enabled affirmation of domestic
composers and performers. By appearing in competitions that were broadcasted on the territory
of the whole of Yugoslavia, local musicians gained popularity among the broad masses and
built their career. Until then, only a small number of music experts had the opportunity to
follow the music trends and enjoy the pop music, with the development of festivals this became
possible for almost every citizen in Yugoslavia.
The first festival founded in the territory of Yugoslavia was the Zagreb Festival (1953), and
the most famous festivals in Yugoslavia were: Opatija Festival (founded in 1958), Split Festival
(1960), Belgrade Spring (1961), Omladina (161, Subotica), Sarajevo (1967), the Festival of
Slovene Pop Culture (1962), the Skopski festival (Фестивал На Забавни Мелодии, founded
in 1968), the traveling festival Song of the Summer (1967), created after the model of Italian
Cantagiro ... Before they got settled as a part of the official order with an ever more powerful
commercial, but also republican representing functions, Yugoslav Radio and Television
festivals were held with the aim of improving domestic entertainment music in order to give
"imported" music a "national seal". 1The Opatija festival was the only festival with federal
status, while others were republic or regional. The Split Festival and the Slovene Folk Festival
were international.2
The Zagreb Festival was held for the first time in the Istra Concert Hall in December 1953,
and due to the great interest of the audience, the reprise of the finale was held during the two
nights in January 1954. The winning song of the first festival was Та твоја рука мала by
Ljuba Kuntaric. The interesting fact is that he found out about his victory at a competition from
newspaper, since during the festival, the intensification of the Crisis was intensified, and the
young author spent that evening wearing a military uniform on the Yugoslav-Italian border.
3
The specificity of this festival was that all the songs were performed by only two singers - Ivo
Robić and Rajko Vali, since this was not a competition of vocal soloists, but of composers, as
an incentive for original creativity.
Details regarding the first Opatija festival and the critique of the press are presented in detail
by Anita Buhin and Aleksandar Rakovic. Considering the various sources they used, it can be

1
Janjetović, Od internacionale do komercijale: Popularna kultura u Jugoslaviji 1945-1991, 126
2
Исто, 126.
3 Zagrebački festival, „Povjest 1950 - 1959“ . Zagrebacki-festival.hr,

http://www.zagrebacki-festival.hr/povijest/1950-1959-kronologoja-12 (Преузето 5.7.2017).

said that their analyzes show a general atmosphere regarding the popularization of new music.
The Opatija Festival was founded in 1958 by the Yugoslav Broadcasting Corporation.
(Attachment 6) Although the concept of the festival was modeled upon the Italian San Remo,
its purpose was to achieve original Yugoslav music. The purpose of establishing the Opatija
Festival is briefly reflecting the political aspirations in shaping new music: the goal of its
founding was to organize a supra-national festival, where representatives of "peoples and
nationalities" will participate, which will help create the Yugoslav style of entertaining music.
4
Entertaining music, jolly notes and text, played the role of representing a socialist man. The
fact that the radio listeners of the direct broadcasting of the festival had a chance to vote,
suggests that the goal was for the new music to be a product of the needs of the broad Yugoslav
masses. At the first festival, six awards were awarded, of which the song Little Girl in
performance by Ivo Robić took three (two first and one other), and was declared the absolute
winner of the festival. Anita Buhin and Igor Duda agree that the victory of this song, and thus
the Opatija Festival, marked the success of entertaining music as a symbol of consumerism.5
In the first years of the festival, foreign guests were invited, especially by Italian experts, who
could have made some the advice on how to make Yugoslav music more specific: more
„Yugoslavian“. 6So the comments could have been heard from composers Gina Bottoni and
Virgilio Panzuti and singer Gianni Chiari.
Some argued that the Yugoslav sound deviated from entertaining music, while others argued
that too much of an Italian influence could be felt, which prevented Yugoslav music to be
distinguished from Italian music in the world as it lacked something original. It will be shown
that this lack of foreign influence made possible for the East to hear the Italian sound through
Yugoslav singers.

4
Buhin, "Opatija festival and the development of entertainment music in Yugoslavia (1958-1962)", 149-151.
"Democratization of music meant accepting light notes, but it still did not mean that entertainment could be
trivial and empty, but had to satisfy cultural standards set by ideology. The entry to the competition described
in detail how an ideal fun melody should sound "Seek the melody to follow the text in which simple scenes
from everyday life are described. The authors of the verses should avoid the usual sentimentality. "The
organizers have repeatedly emphasized that the song does not have to be accepted if the lyrics are
unacceptable and even if the music is in accordance with the regulations. And the good composition meant
that: expression should be without direct reliance on foreign models", but "the use of elements from our
folklore is possible, but it is not a requirement."
5 The song is more famous as: "Dad buy me a car, a bicycle and a rogue ...", was a frequent target of the critique

of the press because of its "decadent" text that does not present the socialist society in the right light. Buhin,
„Opatijski festival i razvoj zabavne glazbe u Jugoslaviji (1958-1962)”, Igor Duda, Pronađeno blagostanje.
Svakodnevni život i potrošačka kultura u Hrvatskoj 1970- ih i 1980-ih.
6
Buhin , „Opatijski festival i razvoj zabavne glazbe u Jugoslaviji (1958-1962)”155.
 In the territory of Serbia, the first festival was Belgrade Spring7, founded in 1961
(Attachment 7). It was held in the Hall of the Trade Union Hall on the initiative of the
Association of Jazz Musicians that announced the competition, after which out of the 200
registered musicians, the jury chose fourteen (for which only the audience voted on the day of
the festival). The songs were performed in two versions, with two different vocals and
arrangements, accompanied by a magazine orchestra in pop - entertaining and jazz sound. It
won the track „Anđelina“, which was interpreted by Đorđe Marjanović and the author of the
song Radoslav Graić. The second place also belonged to Djordje Marjanovic with the song
"Let the Winter Pass". The following year, Djordje Marjanovic and Radoslav Graic won the
first place.
That same year, Yugoslavia for the first time participated in the Eurovision Song Contest
(Attachment 8), and the famous Golden Microphone Festival was also held. At the time of the
sixth year of the European festival, in Cannes, Yugoslavia was represented by Ljiljana Petrovic
from Novi Sad, with the song "Neke davne zvezde" composed by Slovene composer Joze
Privsek, and the text was written by the famous poet Miroslav Antic. Before joining
Eurovision, according to our representative, Miroslav Antic warned her that she must look
modest, without jewelry "worthy of the country from which she comes". Yugoslavia won the
eighth place in Cannes, while the first prize went to Luxembourg. 8It is important to note that
in addition to Eurovision, Yugoslav performers participated in several other festivals in
Western and Eastern Europe.
The Golden Microphone Festival was held only once (1961) in Belgrade, and the reason for
this was the incident after the festival, caused by the disatisfaction of the audience, because
Djordje Marjanovic did not win any awards. The first Split Festival was created in 1960, as a
modernized mix of traditional Dalmatian and Italian sound. It was part of the musical fashion

7
Radio Teevizija Srbije. Trezor: Beogradsko proleće 1988, retrospektiva - snimak direktnog prenosa koncerta iz
Doma sindikata, 04. 05. 2011. Rts.rs, http://www.rts.rs/page/tv/sr/story/21/rts-2/885578/trezor.html, (Преузето
30.7.2017).
8
Yugopapir "Yugoslavia for the first time in the song Eurovision: Ljiljana Petrović, Mika Antić and Jože Privsek
in Cannes 1961", http://www.yugopapir.com/2013/05/pesma-evrovizije-ljiljana-petrovic-mika.html, (Retrieved
28.7.2017),
"During the trial, Mika Antić saw that the representatives of other countries were dressed in silver lime dresses
that were then modern. He asked me what kind of dress I would wear and said that it did not take into
account that I was slipping in some dress like their. I told him I did not have such a dress, and he told me that
the dress I wear is the best for me. It was a little black dress and I commented that I would have to put some
jewelry on what Mika said: 'Don’t you dare! You will not shine like these capitalists! " And our Star sin Cannes,
Илустрована политика, March 1961.
Vreme, Probijanje zavese. 8.5.2008 Vreme.co.rs, http://www.vreme.co.rs/cms/view.php?id=626611
(Retrieved on 28.7.2017)
magazine called More – Revija - Split, whilst it was officially called the Melody of the Adriatic
in 1962. Since 1967, the Split Festival has grown to international dimensions when it became
an international festival of entertaining music, which was attended by a large number of foreign
guests, including many Italian artists, such as: Domenico Mondugno, Claudio Villa, Gino
Paoli, Sergio Endrigo, Milwa 9 ...
In the sixties, festivals became ambassadors of Yugoslav popular music in the country, but
also outside of the Yugoslavian borders. The popularity of the performers who had their first
performances at the festivals, encouraged unsubstantiated musicians to follow examples of
their inspirations, create their own music and try themselves in one of the competitions. With
technological development, radio and television enabled media support for festivals, and record
industry enabled mass consumption of festival hits. In this way, entertainment festivals fulfilled
their purpose: the promotion of general Yugoslav taste, the creation of the first Yugoslav
"stars", the incentive to create original melodies, while Yugoslav musicians have paved the
way for leaving abroad.

9
Rolandi, Con ventiquattromila baci. L’Influenza di cultura massa italiana in Serbia, 165.