Some fun! Here is a sample of the type of video clips known as 'spotovi' which used to be shown on most government-run TV stations for hours each evening in Serbia during the mad war Milošević years (1991-1995). These low-cost productions featured a Serbian turbofolk singer in unique (i.e. sanctions-created isolationist) fashion, often with young and sometimes fashionable young beautiful people dancing in the background to lend this music some cool cred.
First up, Zlata Petrović with her 1993 "Djavo"
Another concept was pile in the singers into some restaurant, give them all the chance to sing a song and there, you have a show. Here we have the notorious Ceca Veličković, just before she married Arkan Ražnatović, singing with Džej Ramadanovski, who later would be singing on the campaign trail for Arkan's Serbian Unity Party which esposed Serbian ethnic purity, even though Ramadanovski is Roma of Muslim Macedonian background. The song is 'Sexy ritam' (Sexy Rhythm).
A big hit in 1994 for Jelena Bročić and the song 'Bele rade' (White Daisies). Note the huge cross on the young girl. The lyricist of this song was heavily promoted in the Serbian media as she lived in Pale, the then capital of Republika Srpska i.e. on the frontline.
Nino was a huge star in Serbia during the 1990s. Born Amir Rešić to a Muslim family in Bosnia, he made a very public conversion to Orthodox Christianity during the height of the Balkan war hypernationalism in 1993. Now officially Nikola Rešić, Nino was the top male Serbian turbofolk singer of the time. Here is one of his most popular songs, made into a new MTV-style 'spot' that came into vogue in 1994 - 'Šta ću mala s tobom' (What Will I Do With You, Little Girl).
Nino's popularity began to wane in the late 1990s. He married Turbofolk singer Sara and they became an 'it' couple. However, Nino had a problem with the demon liquor, resulting in his divorce in 2004. By this time, Nino was no longer popular, partly because he no longer was a useful nationalist propaganda tool. So what to do? Nino converted back to Islam, of course. He was such the prodigal son that less than 15 years after having been billed by Serbian nationalist propaganda as a Bosnian Muslim who having reawakened to his true and original national identity corrected the wrongs of 400 years of Islamic domination and became an Orthodox Christian again, here he is singing 'There's No Religion More Beautiful Than Islam'.
Unfortunately for Nino, Islam could not save him from alcoholism. In was in shock that ex-Yugoslavia found out in October 2007 that Nino died, aged 43, of pancreas perforation due to prolonged alcoholism. His death came only two days after the death of the young Macedonian pop star Toše Proeski, which too had shook the Yugosphere. Such is the fate of many Yugosphere pop stars.
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