12/10/2022 Mediterranean film festival
Bebek: "If we were born somewhere else, Bijelo dugme would have made a world career"
'Why right now and why despite everyone', we asked Željko Bebek on the occasion of the presentation of his autobiographical book in Široki Brijeg, where the musician will be joined by ghost writer and Večernjak’s journalist Robert Bubalo and director of Croatia Records Želimir Babogredac. Along with the questions about the book, we couldn't help but touch on the ongoing tour, the past events and memories. After all, this is Željko Bebek.*
Considering that I have a long life experience and a career, there is a lot to talk about. Maybe it could have been earlier and maybe there will be some additions. Večernjak had this idea, they proposed it to me, and I gladly accepted it. We wrote everything that happened from my birth until today. The reason why ‘despite everyone’ becomes known after you read the book. Throughout my life, I have come to the need to gather more energy than others for the same thing. There is also something that mentally belongs to all of us born in Bosnia, that stubbornness in which, despite everything, we manage to concentrate our strength and persist in what we set out to do. But on the other hand, it has led me to the fact that, regardless of the obstacles, I can always do a bit more than others. Although I had big pauses during my career, there were also moments when a lot of people, both in our parts and in the world, thought that I had said everything. However, in 2021, when we released the album 'Mali oblak ljubavi', it could actually be seen that it was always self-affirmation and I, wholeheartedly and encouraged, continue to look into the future with optimism.
During your 50-year career, a lot happened, what is to be remembered?
When a career lasts a long time there are excellent things that keep the level of interest. There are plenty of good concerts, interviews, troubles that a person can and does get into. It is not a straight line movement, it is a sinusoidal movement of ups and downs. When you add up 50 years, it means that a lot more good things than the bad ones happened in that career. The best things that a person remembers in a musical career are, of course, the biggest concerts that you gave in your life and thanks to which your name turned from ordinary to a special one. One of the biggest things for me was the Hajdučka česma in 1977, when it was confirmed that the band Bijelo dugme had achieved a fantastic result over the time from its creation to that concert. The band proved themselves in front of the entire market in the former Yugoslavia, and around the world. It became clear that this is a group that has achieved everything that can be achieved in rock'n'roll and that they could have certainly counted on a world career if we had been born somewhere else.
You managed to stay normal in everything and in spite of everything, what kept you that way?
I am a music lover, and I have confidence in myself that I can participate in music, equally with all the talented and good performers. The romantic streak that I live by also connects me to music. The state of my consciousness is such that I put love before everything and I am the one who is very dedicated to love throughout my life. Here I mean, of course, the love between people, in the family, for the wife and children. All of this gives me a great strength and energy that keeps me going and I hope that it will serve me for a long time to come up with more new songs and ideas.
What would this Željko say today to the one 50 years ago, at the beginning of his career?
To anyone who would ask me for advice, given my experience, I would say that the most important thing is to live healthily. It is the basis of strong energy, and in this way you will be able to achieve everything you desire.There are many things that a person must refrain from, no matter how tempting or promising they are, because among them there are always steps that can destroy your work, pleasure, beauty and life.I have always chosen what is now called a health care. No matter how exhausted I was at one time, I knew how to say stop and thereby extend my life, energy, mood to always travel through life in a good way.
The new album is behind you, are you currently on tour?
This is the year in which we are intensively working on concerts that we owed to our audience during the pandemic. We are on tour until the end of the year, and one of the concerts that I like and look forward to is the one in Mostar, which we are playing for New Year's Eve.We recently held a nice concert in Toronto, we are preparing for Stuttgart, then Hungary.It is a great concert activity and I am overjoyed to be able to present my band with whom I have been playing for the past ten years.It is a special pleasure and the greatest happiness that my son Zvonimir is there, whom the audience loves very much and who contributes a lot with his music. We are planning a new single for next year and I am sure, as my team of authors and I think and see it, that it will be excellent rock'n'roll.
An invitation to your fans to the presentation of the book in Široki Brijeg?
From Tomislavgrad to Međugorje, these are really places I really like to visit. There are special people, a special mentality here.At the invitation of Robert Bubalo, I wanted to come to the Mediterranean Film Festival and present my book to the dear people here.I invite everyone to join us, and I will try my best to tell the impressions that existed and still exist today, to sublimate all my stories that are relevant to be described.
*Text published in Večernji list; Photo: Boris Ščitar/Pixsell