The OST of my early childhood. Ipče (pron. Eep-che) and his older brother Jašar (pron. Ya-shar) were to say the least pretty big deals in the Serb folk scene back in the day. A good example to how much of an ethno-cultural clusterfuck Yugoslavia was, the Ahmedovski brothers are ethnic Macedonians who are Sunni Muslims, but spent most of their lives and careers in Serbia.
The second song I posted is one of the few love songs that don't make me cringe. It's essentially the guy being sick and tired of his girlfriend being a bipolar sped and gives her an ultimatum to either take this relationship seriously or GTFO. No SIMPing, no grovelling, just straight to the point.
Another reason I found the song so memorable is when years ago I watched videos of Vojislav Šešelj's trial, the prosecution brought up a video that was supposed to be evidence (but ultimately ended up the prosecution desperately grasping at straws). It merely showed Serb irregulars lounging in the ruins of the Croatian city of Vukovar while that song was playing in the background either through a boombox or someone turning up the car radio. The part of the lyrics that played during the video "Danas smo u ljubavi, sutra smo u svađi (...)"
("Today we're in love, tomorrow we're quarrelling (...)") juxtaposed with the scene was one of the best dark comedic summaries of the war I've seen.
"Eh, da mogu da ozivim i da vidim tog, pored vas da stanem, pa nek umrem ponovo."
(Eh, if I could come back to life and see this, to stand before you, so that I may die again.)
This song would leave an especially bitter aftertaste because not too long after its release, Ipče died in a car accident in June 1994 on the infamous State Road 22 aka the Ibarska Magistrala, who I'm convinced as at this point claimed more lives than all the Yugo wars combined. What's even worse is the song is called "Kad nestanem jednog dana" ("When One Day I Disappear"). For his family, the news were absolutely devastating to the point that his parents both died from grief.
A couple of months later, Jašar released a song dedicated to his brother.
"Tamo si ti, tamo je mesto tvoje, tamo gde suze ne postoje."
("There you are, there is your place, there where tears don't exist.")
