Biography
Born on March 22, 1950, in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, Goran Bregovic launched his musical path in 1966 by handling bass duties for the hometown rock outfit Bestije. Following a three-year tenure with Kodeks, he entered the underground trio Mica, Goran and Zoran in 1971. Four years after that, he assembled Bijelo Dugme, a band that ranked among Yugoslavia’s most commercially dominant and culturally resonant acts until its dissolution in 1988.
Bregovic first entered film scoring in 1978 by creating the music for Mica Milosevic’s Nije Nego. His longest-running cinematic partnership developed with director Emir Kusturica, yielding scores for Time of the Gypsies in 1988, Arizona Dream in 1993, and the Palme d’Or-winning Underground of 1995. Further soundtrack work from the same stretch encompassed Queen Margot in 1994, A Chef in Love in 1996, and A Serpent’s Kiss in 1997. On the solo side, his energetic folk-pop output included the 1996 album P.S., the live set Silence of the Balkans issued in 1998, and Ederlezi from 1999; the latter two marked his initial releases on Mercury and Polygram.
In 2000 he delivered the Songbook compilation, mixing score excerpts with original songs that featured collaborations with Iggy Pop. Bregovic issued Tales and Songs from Weddings and Funerals in 2002, then resurfaced in 2007 with the conceptual album Karmen (With a Happy End). The soundtrack to the documentary Mustafa, chronicling Mustafa Atatürk, appeared on Sony in 2009, the same year that brought the live album Alkohol. Champagne for Gypsies arrived in 2012 with guest appearances by Gipsy Kings and Stephan Eicher, while Three Letters from Sarajevo, released in 2017, incorporated performances from Rachid Taha and Asaf Avidan.
Bregovic first entered film scoring in 1978 by creating the music for Mica Milosevic’s Nije Nego. His longest-running cinematic partnership developed with director Emir Kusturica, yielding scores for Time of the Gypsies in 1988, Arizona Dream in 1993, and the Palme d’Or-winning Underground of 1995. Further soundtrack work from the same stretch encompassed Queen Margot in 1994, A Chef in Love in 1996, and A Serpent’s Kiss in 1997. On the solo side, his energetic folk-pop output included the 1996 album P.S., the live set Silence of the Balkans issued in 1998, and Ederlezi from 1999; the latter two marked his initial releases on Mercury and Polygram.
In 2000 he delivered the Songbook compilation, mixing score excerpts with original songs that featured collaborations with Iggy Pop. Bregovic issued Tales and Songs from Weddings and Funerals in 2002, then resurfaced in 2007 with the conceptual album Karmen (With a Happy End). The soundtrack to the documentary Mustafa, chronicling Mustafa Atatürk, appeared on Sony in 2009, the same year that brought the live album Alkohol. Champagne for Gypsies arrived in 2012 with guest appearances by Gipsy Kings and Stephan Eicher, while Three Letters from Sarajevo, released in 2017, incorporated performances from Rachid Taha and Asaf Avidan.
Albums
