Josipa Lisac

The very first person I wrote about on this blog was the big idol of my childhood and a huge influence/inspiration during my formative years, croatian rock queen Josipa Lisac. 

Today I will write a little more about her as I recently saw her live in concert after almost 17 years and memories started flooding back. 

When I was a kid growing up in than-Yugoslavia,music scene was huge according to the size of the country - we had music,genres and stars coming from different parts of the country, big competition and variety of sounds, things that were mainstream and things that were cool. Josipa was always cool. I remember little me collecting newspaper clips about her, being totally fascinated with this strange witch-like siren with seductive, deep and sensual voice that didn't belong to our reality - while other pop stars were smiling,relatively ordinary people that one might meet in the street, Josipa epitomized glamour and other life - trough the years she had changed like chameleon but always kept her unmistakable and recognizable sound (kind of mannered vocal stylings that irritated a lot of people and attracted the others) and the very first I saw her on TV she had just returned from living in USA, looking totally fashionable,modern and "american" while her colleagues were still obviously singers from East-European territory.

At the age of 12-13 I did my homework research and found out that Lisac actually was already a big star long before I had discovered her. She belonged to 1960s beat generation, left a pop band to go solo at the age of 18. and was shocking sedate festival audience with her looks, clothes, hair and music for many years until around 1973. she was finally established as a first croatian female rock singer with a stunning debut LP where she was backed by all-star band. Because rock music was always associated with all kinds of scandals, Lisac herself had a bad reputation and lots of gossips always going on around her but it was basically based on provincial opinions of the people who never even met her. As a teenager I loved everything about her - she was a vegetarian who dressed up like a creature from another planet, was opinionated and open in the interviews, was singing everything from jazz to classical and back, her concerts were sensational and her voice usually put everybody else to shame. I still believe had she been born elsewhere, she would have international career because she is that good.

For many years Lisac was my all-time favorite but as it usually happens my musical tastes expanded and with all my travels and living abroad I checked her out only sporadically, from a distance. 

Usually I was glad and delighted to find out she is still active (basically the only one from her generation), had survived ups & downs, got widowed but honored the memory of her late partner with traditional concert homages to him and finally achieved status of living legend showered with awards. Because she is over 60 now and still active in rock music there is not much understanding for the artist of this age and sometimes I was afraid would she turned into "crazy lady from the attic" caricature of her younger self but it seems that people realize she is doing this because she honestly loves music,its her life and purpose. The ones who don't get it I don't even want to discuss this. Pop scene is full of young,half-naked wannabes who fall sideways every day and Lisac is still here some 40 years later. She is a legend.

Recently I saw her live. She actually sounded better than ever before - that huge,massive voice floating above the crowd who obviously dug and loved her. I mean kids were dancing with their hands in the air and middle-aged people were listening with eyes clothes. The backing musicians were excellent, all of them young punks full of energy who twisted each of the classic gems into another dimension and everything sounded somehow fresh and different - not one song was similar to original recorded version and that was good as well,because it showed Lisac is still artist who loves to play around with her repertoire instead of just repeating herself. To be honest,I actually love the original versions because I listened to them for almost all my life but I understand it must be agony for somebody to play same notes night after night so Lisac chose different path. She does Bossa Nova here, latino there and it all somehow makes new and unexpected listening. 

I don't know how long she will continue doing this because there are many odds against her (age being one) but long might she rule and for me she will always be nr.1.