In our ‘living room’, Karin van den Boogaert and Charlie Crooijmans receive all manner of World Music performers.
Concert by Amira Medunjanin
The Acoustic Roots-team visited the concert by female singer Amira Medunjanin from Sarajevo. She performed in the Amsterdam church De Duif for a predominant own audience on 3rd November 2018. In the Netherlands she is known as one of the greatest interpreters of the sevdah, a song tradition from Bosnia. The Bosnic concept of the sevdah is probably 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 has a conversation with her.
Photos Ton Maas
Amira was born in Sarajevo at the moment when the popularity of traditional music in the former Yugoslavia was at its highest. The music meant a lot to her. The Sevdah songs are traditional and she learned them from her mother, who in her turn learned it form her mother.
The audience, predominantly Bosnian, sang the text of her songs along and the concert lasted for over 2.5 hours!
Thus the concert changed in no time into an ‘intimate’ get-together of over five hundred friends.
Amira is accompanied by guitarist Ante Gelo.
Ante Gelo is an impressive guitarist, who, next to his supporting play, also received enough space for improvisation.
Ton Maas was present and wrote a report:
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