Award-winning singer Damir Imamović + Balkan Musicians´ first UK Tour of Bosnian Blues - Sevdah - the music of beautiful sadness

Bosnian master of sevdah, Damir Imamović will be touring the UK in May with his international band from the Balkans, for a unique and exciting new album, ‘The World and All That It Holds’. Damir’s tour starts in London on May 21st at the iconic Barbican’s Milton Court and from there heads to Brighton Festival on May 22nd, followed by a special performance at Hay Festival on May 27th.  Damir Imamović will be performing Bosnian sevdah music and Sephardic Ladino songs, the language of the Sephardic Jews.

‘The World and All That It Holds’ is being released internationally through Smithsonian Folkways Recordings on May 19th.

As fado is to Portugal, tango to Argentina and rebetiko to Greece, so sevdah is to Bosnia. Sevdah, also known as the Balkan blues, is a traditional music of Bosnia and Herzegovina, centred around narratives of powerful and beautiful sadness and is the perfect expression of longing and love through lyrical narratives and strongly emotive music.

‘The World and All That It Holds’ is an epic journey of flight from war, finding love and longing for home and is the soundtrack to the critically acclaimed novel of the same name written by Bosnian American novelist Aleksandar Hemon, released through Picador in February. ‘The World and All That It Holds’ was co-produced by Joe Boyd (Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, Pink Floyd) and Andrea Goertler and recorded by multi-GRAMMY® winning sound engineer Jerry Boys.

Musicians On Tour
Damir Imamović won the Songlines 2021 Best European Album category for ‘Singer of Tales’ (Wrasse Records) but his 2020 tour in the UK was cancelled due to the pandemic. Damir is very pleased to be able to now tour the UK for the first time in May and will be performing as lead vocalist, alongside playing the stringed folk tambur and the traditional stringed tar. He will be joined on tour in London and Brighton by acclaimed Serbian bassist, Ivan Mihajlović, Bosnian virtuoso violinist Ivana Djurić and master Croatian percussionist Nenad Kovačić.

“The king of sevdah music” - Huffington Post

damirimamovic.com