Goran Bregoviæ supported Russia. He says what he thinks about Putin’s war with Ukraine

and this year they are celebrating the 25th anniversary of cooperation on one of the most frequently played albums in Polish music. There’s probably no one in Poland who couldn’t hum “Right to Left”, so it’s no wonder that the musicians decided to join forces once again. .

And everything would be fine if it weren’t for Goran Bregović’s unconcealed sympathies. The Serb talks about his fascination with imperialist Russia, he performed in Crimea shortly after it was occupied by Putin, and he also performed in Moscow just before the start of the “special military operation” in Ukraine. For security reasons, he was not allowed into Moldova, and a few years ago, concerts in Krakow were canceled due to “different values”. All these issues rang out exceptionally loudly when Polish artists publicized them in the context of upcoming concerts and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Goran Bregović speaks out on Putin’s war with Ukraine

Inviting a pro-Putin musician to Poland in the middle of the war with Ukraine is quite an original idea. This was noticed by the Internet creators of a podcast about the 90s – “Podcastex”. They recalled what Bregović had said in previous years and how he behaved when Russia began to turn words against Ukraine into deeds. We tried to get Kayah’s comment on this – without success. The singer does not discuss this issue, negative and anxious comments on social media are discreetly deleted. “” however, she contacted Goran Bregović himself.

It will be difficult to find another foreign artist who has performed in Ukraine as often as me. (…) So it is difficult to make me an enemy of Ukraine. I am from Sarajevo and the same trauma that Ukrainians are experiencing today we took from our war. So how could I be on the side of someone who started a war and against someone who defended himself? It doesn’t make sense, Bregović said in a conversation with Jarek Szubrycht.

The journalist emphasizes that he had limited opportunities to ask questions – Bregović answered them having received them earlier by e-mail, he could not ask about any issue, the communication was de facto one-way. In the interview, the musician veiled his condemnation of Russian aggression, but he did not find the courage to call evil outright. He explained that he played a previously planned concert in Moscow and no one, not even the president of Ukraine, knew that Putin would start a war the next day. The situation was similar in Crimea (because of this concert he became persona non grata in Ukraine) – the concert was planned in advance in cooperation with the Ukrainian side, and although the Russians had taken over Crimea in the meantime, Bregović played there because he had agreed to do so.