“Bijelo Dugme” (White Button) is the band that early in their career managed to summon 100.000 people on one of their open-air concerts. It happened in 1977 at Belgrade's “Hajdučka česma” and it was the biggest spectacle in ex-Yugoslavia. The concert was secured by only twelve police officers, but there were no incidents at all. Soon after, they established themselves as the leading musical act in the former state. Bijelo Dugme were so big that on their one-off reunion tour in 2005 they sold more than 350.000 tickets for three shows only. The concert in Sarajevo (Bosna and Hercegovina) attracted about 60,000 people and the concert in Zagreb (Croatia) was attended by more than 70,000 people. For the concert in Belgrade (Serbia), more than 220,000 tickets were sold, but it was later estimated that it was attended by more that 250,000 people. Do you know any other band that did that? Of course you do, but you can count them on one hand and everybody knows about them.
Bijelo Dugme was officially formed in 1974. The band's debut album Kad bi bio bijelo dugme, released in 1974, brought them nationwide popularity with its folk-influenced hard rock sound and would be sold in 30,000 copies in the first several weeks of the release. The final number of copies sold was about 141,000. The band had their first bigger performance at the 1974 BOOM Festival in Ljubljana, where they were announced as "the new hopes". This was also Bijelo Dugme's first performance on which the members of the group appeared in their glam rock outfits, which brought them new attention of the media.
Their second studio album “Šta bi dao da si na mom mjestu” (What Would You Give to Be in My Place) was recorded in London during November 1975. It was produced by Neil Harrison who previously worked with Cockney Rebel and Gonzalez. The album was a huge commercial success, selling more than 200,000 copies. After the first 50,000 records were sold, “Šta bi dao da si na mom mjestu” became the first Yugoslav album to be credited as diamond record.
Several albums were released in the following years that kept the hard-rock sound, as well as the tradition of writing masterful rock ballads for each of the releases, songs that are now legendary, sang by kids that weren't even born when Dugme disbanded. After the previously mentioned “Koncert kod Hajdučke česme” was mixed, Bregović went to serve the army and the band went on hiatus; “Melody Maker” wrote about Bijelo Dugme's hiatus as about an event "on the edge of national tragedy".
At the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, the Yugoslav rock scene saw the emergence of a great number of new wave bands, closely associated to the Yugoslav punk rock scene. Bregović was fascinated with the new scene, especially by the works of Azra and Prljavo Kazalište. During 1980, Bijelo Dugme decided to move towards this new sound and in December 1980, released the new wave-influenced album “Doživjeti stotu” (Live to Be 100). In accordance with their shift towards new wave, the band changed their hard rock fashion style: the members cut their hair short, and the frontman Željko Bebek shaved his trademark mustache. This record was a huge success like all of their albums before and after.
In February 1983, the band released the album “Uspavanka za Radmilu M.” (Lullaby for Radmila M.). Bregović intended to release Uspavanka za Radmilu M. as Bijelo Dugme's farewell album and to dismiss the band after the tour. But instead, the lead singer Bebek left the group and was replaced by then relatively unknown Mladen Vojičić - Tifa and Bijelo Dugme continued to release records and play concerts. Goran Bregović, the guitarist and band’s principal songwriter, once again shifted their style from rock to folk-oriented pop-rock music. It was a disappointment to the rock fans, but it brought them even larger audiences.
Unable to bear the burden of constant touring and popularity, Tifa left the band and was replaced by Alen Islamović, who kept the position of a main singer until the end of the band’s career. They released together three extremely successful albums, but with the disintegration of Yugoslavia as a sovereign state, Bijelo Dugme ceased to exist. Goran Bregović moved to Paris, where he established his international fame as a composer and one of the leading figures in world music. The only time that they performed together (with all three singers) was their aforementioned reunion tour in 2005. But their legacy lives on. You won’t find anyone in the Balkans that hasn’t heard of Bijelo Dugme and not a soul from the ex-Yugoslavian republics that doesn’t know at least five of their songs by heart. I am one of many that can sing along their complete discography. I even know the solos by heart. It was one of the most exciting acts on the former scene and yes - they are the most famous band in the world that (most of) you probably never heard of.
