09 July 2010

The new Toše Proeski?

You be the judge. Last year's winner of Croatian Idol Hrvatska traži super zvezdu Bojan Jambrošić, with his song 'Bolji od ljubavi' (We Are Better Than Love). Close you eyes and you'd think it's the Macedonian angel.

Toše Proeski was a Macedonian pop singer of Aromanian ethnic background who took Macedonia and the whole of ex-Yugoslavia by storm in the noughties. However, his life was cut short in October 2007 when he tragically died in a car accident. His funeral was a media event attracting the celebrity elite of the Yugosphere. Even Ceca turned up!After a mass outpouring of shared grief through the Yugosphere, a worrying process of kitsch canonisation of Proeski began. A pet project of Proeski's, the construction of a monastery (believed to be by some as a tax dodge), was completed recently near his birthplace in central Macedonia. Plus, in a perverse display that normally would go against Orthodox Christian practice, Proeski's picture is now often found inside churches throughout Macedonia and Macedonian Orthodox Churches worldwide. Here's an example of a typical display to be found in these churches.

Never more has there been a case for someone impassionately crying on YouTube to say 'Leave Toše alone'.

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