One of the most emotional moments on November 1, 2025, at the memorial service for the victims of the canopy collapse in Novi Sad was the performance by a choir in front of the Railway Station, following the sixteen-minute silence that started at 11:52 AM.
They performed the song “Cveta trešnja u planini” (Cherry Blossoms in the Mountains), which was written by the writer, playwright, director, and screenwriter Dušan Kovačević, and is widely known to the public from the film “Sabirni centar” (The Gathering Place), directed by Goran Marković, who (along with the author) adapted Kovačević’s book of the same name for the film, as reported by N1info.rs.
The music, sorrowful enough to pierce the heart, was composed by Zoran Simjanović. The choir in Novi Sad performed it exactly like that.
“Cveta trešnja u planini”
Cveta trešnja u planini,
Proleće se na put sprema.
Sve je isto u mom kraju,
Samo mene više nema.
Zeleni se loza vita
Oko starog kućnog trema.
Sve je isto kao nekad,
Samo mene više nema.
The performance brought many to tears, and here are some of the comments on social media:
- “I really want to hug the person who remembered the song from Sabirni centar by the Serbian Morricone, Zoran Simjanović, I fell apart.”
- “The choir is the Pop Choir Radio, better known as the PUMP choir, on any other day they are the joy of my life. It was never harder to sing, and I hope we never have to sing this and in this way again.”
- “This is so moving to me, I listened to the recording a hundred times today, and here I am still breaking into pieces while listening to it.”
- “What was even worse was that I couldn’t see them, but the song was heard over the loudspeaker throughout the entire Boulevard. As fantastic as it was, it was equally sorrowful.”
- “Epic reverence of the verses to the sky.”
- “What a song, in what a place, at what a moment.”
- “An emotion that passes through every pore of the skin…”
- “Pure and honest grief after a year of agony, those poor children.”
Source: Nova, Photo: Ata images
Najpotresnije pic.twitter.com/C52jBgcalN
— Iggy (@iggy_bg) November 1, 2025