In this episode, Iva Jelušić and Petra Hamer talk about musicking in the besieged Sarajevo. The conversation covers many related aspects, from practical issues arising from the lack of electricity to the activities of musicians who stayed and those who fled as well as music-related activities of the soldiers. Petra talks about the omnipresence of music in the city and the reasons why it was completely expected.

Petra Hamer is an ethnologist and cultural anthropologist researching popular music and culture during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-1995). She holds a PhD from the University of Graz, where she was researching artistic units of Bosnian-Herzegovinian army, their production of popular patriotic music and the question of national identity construction. She is currently employed as a postdoctoral researcher on the ERC project “The roles of the agency of the dead in the lives of individuals in contemporary society.”

Iva Jelušić is a post-doctoral researcher for the “War and Fun: Reconceptualizing Warfare and Its Experience” project at the Christian Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway.

Some of the songs mentioned in the conversation:

Dino Merlin: Vojnik sreće (Soldier of Luck)  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qp5ZPm8-S8⁠

Dino Merlin: Jedna si jedina (You Arethe One and Only)  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RORiH6WWt9Q⁠

Hanka Paldum: Žuta Fadila (Yellow Fadila)  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wuiTMhb-xg&t=108s⁠

Nazif Gljiva: Branioci Sarajeva (Defenders of Sarajevo)  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9WOds3lXHA⁠

Mladen Vojičić - Tifa: Ponesi zastavu Dragane Vikiću (Carry the Flag, Dragan Vikić)  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeddbTjyYnQ⁠

Macbeth: Mnoge će majke (Many Mothers Will)  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8u-X_w95Wg⁠

Ceca: Volim te (I Love You) ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcg2sAKTkXM⁠