Toma Bebić

Toma Bebić was a Croatian all-round artist from Split: a musician and singer-songwriter, poet, aphorist, painter and performer. He was born in Split on 6 November 1935, his family came from Muć in the Dalmatian hinterland, and he died in his native town on 4 February 1990. That is why he is on Muzika-Balkan, as one of the most original voices of Split. He is best remembered for unconventional songs full of romantic love for nature and distrust of technological progress, made with a simple, open-hearted approach free of academic rules.

He did many jobs: teacher and school secretary, journalist at Nedjeljna Dalmacija and Vjesnik, mechanic and marine engineer among them. In his autobiography he wrote that, moving from one interest to the next, he never managed to become what he wanted, or as one of his aphorisms puts it, "Do mrvice znanja kroz tisuću zvanja" (a crumb of knowledge through a thousand trades). Everything he did was filled with love for people, nature and life, and with his own particular humour.

In the 1970s he released a string of singles: "Nije gotovo kad je gotovo, nego kad ja rečem da je gotovo" with "Tu-tu auto, vrag ti piz odnija!" and "Ča smo na ovon svitu" in 1973, "Nevera" with "Leute moj" and "Marčelina" with "Kaleta" in 1974, and "U korican stare matrikule" with "Kapetan" in 1979. In 1973 he won first prize at an international music festival in Solingen with "Čovik koji se smije".

His two albums, Volite se ljudožderi (1975) and Oya Noya (1980), grew more popular with the years, and many Croatian artists have found inspiration in his lyrics and music. The Split hip hop group TBF say, half in jest, that their name stands for "Toma Bebić Fan". For the opening of the Mediterranean Games in Split in 1979 he created the recital "Djeca Mediterana", mixing klapa singing with rock and disco. His poetry appeared in the collections U sakatu vremenu and Tata-rataata-bum (1984).

Toma Bebić died of lung cancer in Split on 4 February 1990. A book of his aphorisms, Volite se ljudožderi, was published after his death and launched in the toilet of the Bellevue restaurant, a promotion very much in his spirit. His poetry has since been studied by the literary scholar Helena Peričić, and the Split Festival gives an award in his name for the best Dalmatian song, won among others by Klapa Maslina.