Recent news about passing of Ljupka Dimitrovska signals farewell from the whole generation of entertainers that ruled TV variety shows back in 1970s.
As a child, I couldn't even imagine Sunday afternoons or New Year shows without names like Dimitrovska, Ivica Šerfezi, Krunoslav Kićo Slabinac, Duško Lokin or Zdenka Vučković - all of them stars of than popular pop festivals that reflected taste of times. Neither time nor critics were nice to them - this kind of music was light, breezy and entertaining, decidedly unpretentious and its huge mass appeal meant that critics usually dismissed it because it was (gasp) entertaining instead of life-affirming, dark and brooding. Sure, it makes you wonder how respected artists like Arsen Dedić or Josipa Lisac rubbed elbows in the very same TV shows with colleagues named above, but in reality they were never seen as entertainers and besides, apparently there was place for everybody.
Where in previous decade, "Jugoton" output focused on EP recordings with various artists, the 1970s saw first LP albums by single artists, not to mention hit singles promoted on popular pop festivals - Dimitrovska and her brand of sunny pop happened to be huge sellers, embraced by large portion of TV variety show audiences so it was just a matter of time before lady got her own LP album, which collected most of the previous hit singles from 1969 up to that point and added newest, peppy "Ljutit će se moja majka" from festival Zagreb '75. It was all masterminded by her husband Nikica Kalogjera who as composer/arranger/producer perfectly tailored material for the lively little blonde, spotlighting her charm and giving her happy, memorable refrains that translated into smash hits.
It might seem deceptively simple and lightweight, but lots of talents collaborated behind this juggernaut: no less than Arsen Dedić, Ivica Krajač and Željko Sabol came with lyrics (all of them very respectable names), while Dr.Kalogjera lined up hit after hit, many of them winners of festivals at home and abroad. The success of this kind of music has to do also with geographical position - traditionally closer to European schlager and Eurovision, country was quick to embrace brassy, orchestrated candies, in fact not only all of this sounds to my ears like "Puppet on a string" but Dimitrovska had actually recorded song back in a day (and there is one called "Marioneta" even on this album). Smiling and peppy singer was naturally kids favorite (often paired with Ivica Šerfezi), toured successfully and this album was just a start of incredibly successful chapter - for the rest of 1970s she went on from strength to strength, with even bigger hits still coming up after this album. Later, when this kind of music inevitably fell out of fashion, Dimitrovska and her duet partner found welcome market in Germany where their songs about Adriatic Sea, sun and wine won over completely new audience (German connection is not a coincidence, as this kind of music was always very popular there). As new generations pushed the older ones sideways, their music might appear completely dated afterwards but this is destiny of most of pop music anyway. In her time, Dimitrovska gave lots of warmth and love to the world and this is how she will be remembered.
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