Djordje Balasevic pop singer dies of coronavirus
Djordje Balasevic, a Serbian singer who remained widely popular throughout the former Yugoslavia after the wars of the 1990s, has died after contracting the new coronavirus, state television reported Friday, he was 67.
Balasevic was admitted to a hospital in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad three days ago suffering from pneumonia that appeared to be a complication of COVID-19. State broadcaster RTS said he died at the hospital on Friday.
Balašević grew up in Jovan Cvijić street in Novi Sad, in the same house where he lived until his death. He started writing poetry in primary school. He left high school in the third year but managed to get a high school diploma as a correspondence student and passed the preliminary exam for the university study of geography. He never graduated from the university but instead, he decided to pursue a music career, and in 1977 he joined the band Žetva.
Balašević lived in Novi Sad in the same house where he grew up, with his wife Olivera (born Savić in Zrenjanin), who was a ballerina and a member of the national gymnastics team, and their three children, daughters Jovana (an actress, born in 1980) and Jelena (born in 1984), and son Aleksa (born in 1994). On 14 November 2019, Balašević suffered a myocardial infarction from which he was recovering until his death.
His legacy started in 1998 book YU 100: najbolji albumi jugoslovenske rok i pop muzike (YU 100: The Best albums of Yugoslav pop and rock music) features two Đorđe Balašević solo albums, Bezdan (ranked No. 25) and Pub (ranked No. 66), and one Rani Mraz album, Mojoj mami umesto maturske slike u izlogu (ranked No. 44).
In 2000, the song “Slovenska” (polled No. 69) on the Rock Express Top 100 Yugoslav Rock Songs of All Times list.
Even after the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, Balašević remained popular and well-liked not only in Serbia but throughout the various former Yugoslav republics. Balašević is a “legendary” performer whose songs could “inspire deepest emotion in an audience.
In his hometown of Novi Sad, hundreds of people gathered in the town center after the news of his death and besides in his native Serbia there were fan gatherings as well as in Zagreb and Pula in Croatia and in Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mayor of Novi Sad, Miloš Vučević announced that on February 21st, day of mourning will be held in Novi Sad because of Balašević’s death.
