Josipa Lisac is 67

My all-time favourite Croatian singer Josipa Lisac turned 67 this February (precisely, on Valentine's day) and its with a great sense of surprise that this fact actually registered with me out of the blue, while I was eating my dinner: it really shows my age when my favourite pop singer is actually marching to be 70. I mean, what kind of ancient Methuselah I must be. Suddenly I felt as it is in fact me who is 67. Than again, yes, I do belong to the last century, even the last millennium since this is when I came to this world, grew up and formed whatever personality I have today. Everything that happened after I hit 40 was more or less very much the same blur of activities, while the most exciting times, years, loves and passions happened back in the last century. Dear God, I am just an ancient turtle who wasn't aware of it. 

Lisac of course performed professionally just a little longer than I am on this world - her start more or less coincide with my birth - although I actually became aware of her once I hit the puberty and since than went trough touchingly faithful phases of collecting newspaper articles, magazine covers and of course every single recording on vinyl, tape and CD (nowadays in mp3 format while I travel). It didn't met with approval at home or in the school, as back than my music idol was considered acquired taste who didn't have much appeal to mainstream audience but I couldn't care less. People were blind. To me she was beautiful and possessor of most wondrous voice I had ever heard. Her discography was always fascinating, inspiring and full of surprises as she seemed to strive for perfection and was always ready to experiment, never compromising or calculating what might be commercial - in fact, her very music persona, that highly stylised, mannered voice is in itself a powerful statement of individuality. Even as old turtle as I might be nowadays, that voice still thrills me and I know no other similar - she has been so darn unique phenomenon on Croatian scene that I simply never even considered anybody else as her competition or (sadly) successor. 

Interestingly enough, Lisac seems to have been extremely polarising audiences from the start, back in the 1960s. People either loved her passionately or couldn't stand her. This in itself is a sign of a giant amongst Lilliputians, because only strong personality can inspire such passionate reactions. It has also been one continuous aspect of her life, where from decade to decade she had to prove herself again and again, fighting the prejudices, chauvinism, critics and ignorance to the point when audience finally reluctantly realised well yes, she has been around forever. Sure, she is very celebrated nowadays and her name is in a schoolbooks next to Edith Piaf as a example of singing art, but its easy to forget that it took lots of strength and confidence to endure all the criticism trough the years. So its bittersweet that Lisac now celebrates her birthday and 50th anniversary in business with sold out concerts, like true living legend she is, while almost all of her contemporaries and critics had withered away long ago. Sometimes I regret that media is so obsessed with all that diva cellophane (outfits, hairstyles, fashion, etc) because for me Lisac is first and foremost all about the voice and so far I have not found anybody seriously analysing her music and how she found her own place inside of all those different genres, but apparently new generations of artists have been listening and future might show just how influential she might be. 

Like all the great artists, Josipa Lisac has always been ice breaker - not just as first female rock singer in the whole territory of former Yugoslavia and first person who dared the sedated audiences with flower pot hairstyles, peacock dresses and golden wigs - I must admit that she seemed to really always enjoy herself and delighted in all those elaborate costumes (geisha! witch! priestess! space ship! Christmas gift wrapped with a ribbon!) and nowadays she cultivates charming crazy lady from the attic image. For the role she has now - approaching 70 and still active - there is no regulations, standards or rule books, we simply had nobody else like her before. My guess is that she will probably continue as long as audience crowd her concerts, because music is not her profession but her mission in life. Even though she hesitantly released only two studio albums in the last two decades (!) young, cutting edge bands line up for her guest appearances and duets that inevitably turn into hits so she is truly enjoying privileged status and deservedly so. I read somewhere that if we imagine all Croatian music scene as a family dinner, Josipa Lisac would be that scandalous aunt with the most interesting stories, how wonderful. She has been great joy and inspiration in my life and I'm actually surprised how constant this has been, I mean the very first LP record I ever bought was hers, that was 36 years ago and I still swoon like teenager when I hear her voice, its just magical.