In our ‘living room’, Karin van den Boogaert and Carolien Cleiren receive all manner of World Music performers.
A concert by Amira Medunjanin.
The Acoustic Roots team visited a concert by female singer Amira Medunjanin from Sarajevo. She performed in the Amsterdam church De Duif on 3 November for her, predominantly, own public. In the Netherlands she is known as one of the greatest performers of the sevdah, a song tradition from Bosnia. The Bosnian concept of sevdah can maybe best described as longing, melancholy, love and can be compared to the Portuguese Fado and the Spanish duende. Acoustic Roots presenter Karin van den Boogaert interviews her.
Photos Ton Maas
Amira was born in Sarajevo at the moment where the popularity of the traditional music in the former Yugoslavia was at its greatest. The music meant a lot to her. The Sevdah songs are traditional and she learnt them from her mother, who, for her part, had learnt them from her mother.
The public, mainly Bosnian, sang the text of her songs along and the concert lasted for more than 2.5 hours!
The concert quickly changed into an ‘intimate’ tête-à-tête of more than five hundred friends.
Amira is accompanied by guitarist Ante Gelo.
Ante Gelo is an impressive guitarist who next to his supportive playing also got enough free rein for improvisation.
Ton Maas was present and wrote a report.
