All those who grew up with pop music in the 60s, 70s and 80s, remember well the famous Sarajevo Festival “Your Hit of the Season”.
Exactly on the day of liberation of Sarajevo, April 6th 1967, the first festival “Your Hit of the Season” was held in the hall of the Workers’ University Đuro Đaković, today’s Bosnian Cultural Centre.
As emphasized by the organizers of the festival, “Your Hit of the Season” has been and remained the best festival of local music from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The man who largely created the Sarajevo pop music scene and who was the conceptual creator of the festival is Esad Arnautalić, music specialist, composer, arranger and participant in a phenomenon called the Sarajevo pop-rock school for several decades.
Mr. Arnautalić, most responsible for the high reputation which this festival has enjoyed, recalls for Radiosarajevo.ba the ’60s time and the very beginnings of this great idea.
“The festival originated from the programming needs of Radio Sarajevo, because at that time there was a high demand for local authors and local songs. Then I called all the colleagues from Yugoslavia to see where we are, what we have and what we can compete with. The winner of the first “Your Hit of the Season” festival held at Đuro Đaković hall was Kemal Monteno with the song Lidija“.
“”When we moved to Skenderija it was magnificent, back those years everyone enjoyed the festival and it was a ceremony to remember, believe me. In general, the arias are the fundamental need of humans. All of us need a melody; it only depends on the generation and the times in which we live. Each generation has its own music. Not even our parents loved the Beatles! Kornelije Kovać and Đorđe Novković also participated in the production back then, and they have proven to be the right people”, concludes Arnautalić.
It is interesting that the first two editions of “Your Hit of the Season” did not go to the direct transmission on television, but they have been filmed with film cameras. In 1969, Television Sarajevo has completed the first self-direct transmission of the festival, from the magnificent, newly built Skenderija hall.
At that time the Festival experienced a golden age and the greatest success. During 70s Sarajevo was the capital of the pop-rock scene. The young singer Ismeta Dervoz performed on the festival for the first time in 1975, as a soloist of the group Ambassadors. She performed the song which is still considered one of the most beautiful – Zemljo moja, and won the award for interpretation.
In an interview with Radiosarajevo.ba, Mrs. Dervoz evokes the memories of those golden years:
“Those years were really the golden age, and I proudly recall that time. The audience simply swarmed to these events and it was wonderful to see how the festival evenings have been awaited, and Skenderija filled to capacity. In 1980 I won as a soloist with the song Ja nemam mira, but my favorite festival is the one from 1999 when I was the executive producer of special projects of Radio-Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina and I managed to restore the Festival as our original Eurovision Song Contest (ESC). Back then I was hoping we will be able to restore that atmosphere which the festival brought to our city and country. Much to the dismay, it all remained just a brilliant comeback festival in 1999, due to the material insufficiency, leaving only beautiful memories to the organizers and participants”, recalls Mrs. Dervoz.
(Source: radiosarajevo.ba)
