The home of the soul is silence; from this silence, beautiful music emerges. Amira Medunjanin's voice touches that silence on one end of its range; on the other, it reaches transcendent emotional purity. Her voice makes a full circle, as it were, to the soul and its silence.
Amira's singing brings tears to one's eyes and unmitigated joy to one's heart. Her voice is good news for those of us who need music to live.
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Singer, humanitarian, and global ambassador for the culture and music of her native Bosnia & Herzegovina and the wider Balkan region, Amira Medunjanin has been described as one of the great voices of her generation and almost certainly the finest from eastern Europe.
Dubbed “Bosnia’s Billie Holiday” by music journalist and author Garth Cartwright, the comparison reflects the way in which Amira turns Sevdah inside out, finding new contexts and forms within a tradition that is hundreds of years old.
It is not easy to find a single word in English that can stand for the Bosnian concept of Sevdah, although yearning perhaps comes closest. Like the Spanish Dunende, it carries multiple meanings - love, hopeless love, a desire that chills and fevers the lover and can never be shaken off - but in the end, it’s a way of life, and a narrative that tells the story of itself.
