Bajaga

Bajaga, in full Bajaga i Instruktori, is a Serbian and former Yugoslav rock band from Belgrade, led by the singer, guitarist and principal songwriter Momčilo Bajagić "Bajaga". He started out in 1974 as the singer of TNT and joined Riblja Čorba as a guitarist in 1979, recording five studio albums with them. The band grew out of his solo album "Pozitivna geografija", released in January 1984 while he was still in Riblja Čorba, with Dejan Cukić on vocals, Miroslav Cvetković on bass, Nenad Stamatović on guitar and Vladimir Golubović on drums. Their first concert was in Zagreb's Kulušić club on 12 April 1984, and on 21 April in Belgrade they appeared for the first time as Bajaga i Instruktori. That July Bajagić left Riblja Čorba for good.

"Pozitivna geografija" brought "Berlin", "Tekila gerila", "Tamara" and "Marlena", and Rock magazine named it album of the year. The second album, "Sa druge strane jastuka" (1985), did even better: Rock named the band, the album and "Zažmuri" the best of the year. In June 1985 the band sold out Tašmajdan Stadium twice and played the YU Rock Misija concert, Yugoslavia's part of Live Aid. "Jahači magle" (1986), "Prodavnica tajni" (1988) and the live double album "Neka svemir čuje nemir" (1989) followed. Cukić left in 1986, and keyboard player Saša Lokner, formerly of Galija, joined in 1985.

In the 1990s came "Muzika na struju" (1993), with the anti-war ballad "Golubica", and after a break the reformed band released "Od bižuterije do ćilibara" (1997). "Zmaj od Noćaja" (2001), "Šou počinje u ponoć" (2005), "Daljina, dim i prašina" (2012), "U sali lom" (2018) and "Ovaj svet se menja" (2020) kept the story going. In 2013 about 30,000 people saw them at Kalemegdan, and in 2021 Bajagić was awarded the Order of Karađorđe's Star.

Members also played in Bulevar, Suncokret and Pop Mašina. In the 1998 YU 100 book of the best Yugoslav albums, "Sa druge strane jastuka" was 13th. In the Rock Express Top 100 Yugoslav Rock Songs of All Times, a poll of readers, critics and musicians published in 2000, "Zažmuri" was ranked 70th, and on B92's 2006 list of the 100 best domestic songs it was 40th. Their other favourites include "Tišina", "Godine prolaze" and "Moji drugovi".