Slave Dimitrov

Slave Dimitrov is a Macedonian composer, singer, arranger and music producer, born in Bitola on 1 June 1946. Over more than half a century he has written some of the best-loved songs in Macedonian pop, and as a producer at Radio Skopje he recorded a whole generation of the country's singers and bands.

He began composing, arranging and performing in Bitola, and had his first success at the Mladina 66 festival in Subotica. While still a student at the Music Academy in Belgrade (1966-1970), he won first prize at the Yugoslav festival Vašiot šlager na sezonata in 1968, and that same year recorded his first single for Radio Television Belgrade.

In 1970 he became a producer at Radio Skopje, where he stayed for almost twenty years. He left thousands of recordings in every genre, featuring nearly all the Macedonian pop, rock and jazz performers, ensembles and groups of the time. In 1971 his song "Čija si" was first performed at the Skopje festival. It has since been recorded in many versions at home and abroad, was named "song of the millennium" in several polls, and inspired a theatre play.

Many more of his songs became hits, among them "Nežnost", "Ima edna moma", "Tivko tivko", "Dali da ti prijdam", "Momčeto so mandolina", "Esenska roza" and "Ti samo zboriš". He also wrote a large body of music for television series, dramas, films and the theatre, including "Ispravi se, Delfina", "Golemata soba", "Tome od benzinskata pumpa", "Opstanok" and the children's series "Zagubeno pa najdeno".

As a singer he appeared less often, but at nearly every important event in Macedonia and on tours in the United States and Canada. As a producer he worked on the music of the Skopje and Opatija festivals and on Eurovision selections. After the Skopje festival ended in 1980, he did much to found and shape Makfest in Štip, and the city gave him its 8 November award in 1990. He was artistic director of Skopje 79 and of many Makfest editions, and of children's festivals in Štip and Bitola.

Dimitrov was among the first in Macedonia to make music with a computer, a path his sons followed: Oliver Dimitrov and Darko Dimitrov, both composers, arrangers and producers. Darko is widely credited with reviving Yugoslav mainstream pop. Slave Dimitrov also helped found the music associations Špato, Džinot and Komip, which campaigned for music quotas in Macedonian broadcasting law.