INTERVIEW, DAMIR IMAMOVIĆ, THE KING OF SEVDAH: I can’t write songs for those who only talk about how much they earn, what they snorted, and what car they drive!

Damir Imamović is a Sarajevo artist, a maestro of sevdah and one of the biggest stars of Balkan ethno music. And when his path takes him far from our region, as it has these days to Chicago, Damir transforms into an ambassador of shared culture and traditional sound, which has reigned in his ears since childhood thanks to his grandfather Zaim, the king of sevdalinkas, and his father Nedžad, also a well-known musician and producer.

Although grateful to his ancestors, Damir has carried the music they preserved for him into another dimension, bringing it closer to those who may not share the same genetic code and heritage, but have the ears and soul to hear and feel the music and emotion it conveys.

He has collaborated with greats of both Balkan and world music, such as Vlatko Stefanovski, Jadranka Stojaković, Natsuki Kido, Bachar Khalifé, Bojan Zulfikarpašić… and a few years ago wrote the major hit “Pjevat ćemo šta nam srce zna” for his fellow Sarajevan, colleague, and friend Amira Medunjanin.

However, he says that although he has been contacted by newly popular stars of turbo-folk and so-called trap music, he cannot write songs for people who “only talk about how much they earn, what they snorted, and what car they drive.”

Ahead of the concerts he will hold at Nichols Hall in Evanston (Chicago) on October 11 and 12, he spoke with our editor Antonije Kovačević about many things…

About how, as a teenager who listened to punk and rock and roll, he “resisted” the family legacy of his father and grandfather, great masters of sevdah, how difficult it was later to bear the burden of their fame, how he felt when he first presented original Balkan music to the world, and how Americans perceived sevdah as jazz and blues, only played on different instruments…

Listen, watch, and enjoy…