Bijelo Dugme

Bijelo Dugme was a rock band from Sarajevo, led by the guitarist and songwriter Goran Bregović, and it is widely considered the most popular and best-selling band ever to exist in the former Yugoslavia. Its first line-up, Bregović, singer Željko Bebek, drummer Goran "Ipe" Ivandić, keyboardist Vlado Pravdić and bassist Zoran Redžić, had played together since 1971 as Jutro, and Bregović and Bebek had earlier been in Kodeksi. The band officially took the name Bijelo Dugme in January 1974.

The debut album "Kad bi' bio bijelo dugme" came out in 1974 and was followed by "Šta bi dao da si na mom mjestu" (1975) and "Eto! Baš hoću!" (1976). The fan frenzy of those years got its own press name, "Dugmemanija". On 28 August 1977 the band played a free open-air concert at Hajdučka česma in Belgrade, with an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 people, the biggest rock audience Yugoslavia had seen up to then, and on 22 September 1979 more than 70,000 came to the JNA Stadium.

With Bebek the band went on to record "Bitanga i princeza" (1979), "Doživjeti stotu" (1980) and "Uspavanka za Radmilu M." (1983). Bebek left in 1984, and Mladen Vojičić "Tifa" sang on the self-titled 1984 album, home of "Lipe cvatu" and "Za Esmu". After Tifa left in 1985, Alen Islamović fronted the band on "Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo" (1986) and "Ćiribiribela" (1988). Bijelo Dugme split in 1989, as the country slid towards war, and Bregović carried on as a film composer.

In 2005 most former members, all three singers among them, reunited for three concerts: about 60,000 people at Koševo in Sarajevo, more than 70,000 at Maksimir in Zagreb, and more than 220,000 tickets sold at the Belgrade Hippodrome on 28 June. On 11 May 2024 the band played its first concert in 19 years, in Sarajevo, opening a 50th-anniversary tour with Tifa and Islamović singing; Bebek declined the invitation. Ipe Ivandić died in 1994, keyboardist Laza Ristovski in 2007 and Vlado Pravdić in 2023.

Eight Bijelo Dugme albums are in the 1998 book YU 100 of the best Yugoslav albums, "Bitanga i princeza" highest at No. 10. In the Rock Express Top 100 Yugoslav Rock Songs of All Times, a poll of readers, critics and musicians published in 2000, the band has eight songs: "Lipe cvatu, sve je isto ko i lani" at No. 10, "Bitanga i princeza" No. 14, "Sve će to, o, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" No. 17, "Sanjao sam noćas da te nemam" No. 31, the 1975 single "Ima neka tajna veza" No. 38, "Šta bi dao da si na mom mjestu" No. 68, "Za Esmu" No. 78 and "Kad bi bio bijelo dugme" No. 97.