{"id":193365,"date":"2025-11-20T18:40:55","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=193365"},"modified":"2025-11-20T18:40:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:40:57","slug":"josipa-lisac-on-student-protests-young-people-simply-want-a-better-world-and-there-is-nothing-wrong-with-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/josipa-lisac-on-student-protests-young-people-simply-want-a-better-world-and-there-is-nothing-wrong-with-that\/","title":{"rendered":"JOSIPA LISAC ON STUDENT PROTESTS: \u201cYoung people simply want a better world, and there is nothing wrong with that\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Josipa Lisac recently released a new song, \u201cZamisli,\u201d which has already resonated throughout the region, and she has also scheduled a concert for November 27 at Sava Center, which she discussed in an interview for NIN<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What expectations and emotions accompany you ahead of this new encounter with the Belgrade audience?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t have any special expectations, you know. Yes, we will meet again, and that is always wonderful to me. Our encounters have lasted for a long time, since the distant 1960s. There was, admittedly, that one inhumane period when we suddenly separated, and none of us knew why or how that happened. But we had to rise above that time, and when we finally met again, it felt as if we had never even parted. I wasn\u2019t the only one who felt that way; many people I later spoke to felt the same. Through music, it is truly beautiful to live with people who understand you, who come because they want to experience something; maybe to hear you, to see you, but often to find something of their own within it. And I myself always find something new in those encounters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belgrade is also the city where, in 1967, at Dom omladine, you held your first concert. How do you think about it today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I especially love Belgrade. I\u2019ve always loved it and always will, because Belgrade knows how to recognize what is good. It\u2019s a city with a soul, a city that truly knows how to experience music. Oh, that first concert of mine was\u2026 It was a different time, we were much younger. I was seventeen then. Around me, a hall full of young people, and the energy was incredible. Even today I have many young people around me; generations change, but people remain. Still, it\u2019s hard to compare those two times. Today everything is different, even the air. Literally and symbolically. It\u2019s no longer as clean as it was back in 1967. I remember, on the day of that concert, it was snowing. Yes, everything was cleaner, simpler, more sincere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In what sense \u201ccleaner\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People today have created an entirely different world, mentally and physically. When I say it was cleaner then, I mean in every sense. You did what interested you, and everything else was mostly unknown to you. Today people are interested in everything, often too much and unnecessarily, while what they really should know\u2014what they want, what they want to create in life\u2014often gets lost in all of that. Millions of pieces of information, messages, sounds buzz around us, and then a person becomes confused, doesn\u2019t know what to do, where to go, where to be. It\u2019s the same in music. Everything is created, born, and passes, but I still think music was better then than it is today. Today everything is confused, not only in our region but worldwide. Everything has changed\u2014East, West, everything has mixed. Even in the 1980s, when I was in America, suddenly the East was \u201cdiscovered.\u201d You remember Ayatollah Khomeini and everything that came with that, up to this very day. And even before that, there was that conflict between Israel and Palestine, that constant tension, unrest\u2026 something was always happening. But that is not just a political question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What then?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is actually a disturbance of order in the entire world society. People can no longer live peacefully and well. Moments of life are being taken from them\u2014time for family, career, their professions and callings. Time today carries a kind of fear and that enormous, burning ego that bursts from all sides. Everyone measures themselves against others: who is better, who is stronger, who is worth more. And how can one even live, let alone create, in such a world? It\u2019s a fact\u2014a chaos, a confusion that is visible everywhere, even in music. Information comes from all sides: you must do this, take that, try this\u2026 some ready-made formulas are offered. But where is what is yours, what you create yourself? Where is your sincere creativity, your inner voice that drives you? Unfortunately, many lose themselves there. Frighteningly lose themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your greatest love, the famed artist Karlo Metiko\u0161, once said: \u201cShe is so fragile, gentle, but when she steps on stage she turns into a beast.\u201d How do you perceive those words today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has not been physically present for nearly thirty-five years, but in my soul and my heart he is always here. People say all sorts of things\u2014that I write him letters, that I live with his urn\u2026 Oh no, those are nonsense. Death cannot take away what I felt for years. Can people only love each other when they touch and look at each other? People who love know that love does not end with physical departure. You have a heart, you have reason, and if you follow that, you know what is true. I decided to continue everything we created together on my own. I didn\u2019t want to betray our idea, our story. I didn\u2019t want to be Judas and abandon it. No, I decided to move forward, strongly, with a lot of energy, for as long as I can. Karlo still gives me strength for life and creation. I believe the soul lives and exists, and it is precisely that belief that enriches me and gives me the strength to go on. Music is my medicine and it truly heals. And regarding that \u201cbeast\u201d Karlo\u2014who was very witty\u2014spoke of\u2026 yes, sometimes I really do turn into her (laughs). When I step on stage, it just happens. But there are also moments when I am smaller than a little mouse. Those are the quiet, invisible moments that no one sees and does not need to see. That is life, full of contrasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years ago marked half a century since the release of your first LP, \u201cDiary of One Love\u201d (whose authors are Karlo Metiko\u0161 and Ivica Kraja\u010d), the first conceptual album of the ex-Yu scene, which showed that domestic music could stand shoulder to shoulder with the world. How does that album shape your view of art and life today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am proud and happy\u2014of that album and of Karlo. We met in 1971, the very next year our musical adventure began, and in \u201973 \u201cDiary\u201d was released. And I can only say: I am grateful that I received that album and all those songs as a gift of life. Such enthusiasm, such passion\u2026 An ideal blend of concept, story, and songs. We were all in a rapture, from the lyricist to the musicians. It all looked world-class, both then and now. And the later albums were created with the same spirit, the same faith and will, but something unexpected always appears, something you cannot predict. That is creativity. I am also happy that back then, as a very young woman, I had the courage to refuse \u201cJugoton\u2019s\u201d\u2014today\u2019s Croatia Records\u2014proposal to put all my earlier singles on my first LP. I said: no, that won\u2019t do. I wanted something new, something that had a story and an idea. That was exactly \u201cDiary\u2026\u201d Because of that determination, I seemed strange, rude, difficult to those people in charge\u2026 simply because I fought for something of my own. And I never thought \u201cDiary of One Love\u201d would have such significance and such a long life and journey as it has today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of your famous songs, \u201cAbout One Youth,\u201d contains the line: \u201cWho knows, maybe some other world awaits me\u201d\u2026 From this life distance, do you believe that this \u201cother world\u201d truly exists?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It certainly exists. Every day brings something new; nothing is the same as it was five, ten, or twenty years ago. Everything changes, and we must adapt, accept, and learn how to live within it. People always want things to be better, although sometimes they become worse. Sometimes it\u2019s like this, sometimes like that. Still, we cannot take hope and faith away from a person. The inner peace and strength we carry help us create something beautiful and good, for ourselves and for others. That song speaks beautifully about exactly that\u2014about hope, about life that constantly changes, and about that inner world each person must find for themselves. Young people always want to leave their mark, different from those left by older generations, and that\u2019s how generations build upon and change each other. We must allow young people to experience and create their own world. Definitely. They are stepping into a world before them, where previous generations left traces they do not like. Now it is their time to step forward on their own and create something good, believing in what they feel is right. Of course, that is not easy\u2014it never is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s time, when art increasingly succumbs to patterns and the \u201claws\u201d of the market, you persist in authenticity. How much courage does it take to remain true to yourself, and has that consistency\u2014your defiance\u2014ever cost you more than you expected?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has cost me a great deal (laughs), and it still costs me today. Every time I go before people, I am \u201cunder scrutiny.\u201d I know not everyone likes me, but I also know I have intrigued many. Even those who don\u2019t like me, in their own way, follow and appreciate what I do. I never thought of myself as brave, but I knew what I wanted and what I liked. I often said \u201cno\u201d when it was necessary, and that helped me stay true to my vision. For example, while many \u201cfly\u201d toward large arenas and massive concerts, I decided to go another way\u2014more intimate, smaller spaces. For me, it is important to be with people who recognize and appreciate what I create, not to be part of mass appeal or to repeat what others do. And I will continue like that, because consistency with myself and my art is more important to me than the size of the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These days you released a new single, \u201cZamisli,\u201d a song that reaffirms your status as an unrivaled avant-garde figure of the regional music scene. In this often loud and chaotic time, \u201cZamisli\u201d feels like a quiet but powerful message\u2014a reminder of courage, dreams, and love. How did you experience it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You put it beautifully. \u201cZamisli\u201d carries very beautiful messages. I recall a time when we practically lived on air; we needed nothing. That song speaks of essential values, of the goodness that can overcome evil. Today it often seems that evil is stronger, because we are surrounded by that chaos in the whole world, and we constantly talk about it. But \u201cZamisli\u201d reminds us that good always has strength. It is a song that restores hope and reminds us of courage, dreams, and love\u2014to preserve what is essential in a person, even in such a world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ MORE:<\/mark><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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VELIKI USPEH SRPSKIH GIMNAZIJALACA: Osvojili 22 medalje na me\u0111unarodnom takmi\u010denju iz matematike!<\/a><\/blockquote>