In the mid-1990s, Rambo Amadeus told me about the interesting Slovenian musician Robert Pešut, who performs in public as Roberto Magnifico. Soon I got his album Who is the boss? with an unusual mix of Balkan, disco sound and occasional singing in heavily accented English. His songs were witty but imbued with cynicism. And with a critical attitude. Namely, čefur is a mocking term in Slovenian slang for foreigners, mostly from the poorer republics of the former Yugoslavia. Thanks to his charm, Magnifico quickly went beyond the Slovenian borders, succeeding on the European stage as well. He became a favorite of the local audience by making music for Dragan Bjelogrlić's films and series. And even the fact that Bjelogrlić became a thorn in the side of the current government did not hinder Robert's success Dawn breaks., which many have known for a long time.
"WEATHER" At the end of last year you released a double vinyl Bestseller Collection 1993 2023. Because during those thirty years you combined different genres and went through numerous phases, how do you look at your career so far??
MAGNIFICIOUS: When I look back, I remember only good things. As in the JNA. Of course, it was often not OK, but I remember the past with a smile. People forget less pleasant things. And they don't even matter. I guess that shapes us. And genres... I don't deal with them. Being a singer-songwriter, I tried to find the right suit for the song. They are purely in function of the music. I do not master any genre. It would be pretentious to say that I have been in numerous genres, but here and there I take something from each genre. Of course, if it goes well with the music and lyrics.
How will you celebrate thirty years on stage??
I didn't think I would ever do that. I find it a bit pathetic when it is mentioned. But it's a good moment when you fill up a number, to finish what you were doing and turn a new chapter. You simply make a row in the drawer. I will not mark, but I will work as before. After eight years, I am preparing a new album. I don't have a title yet because I'm only finally realizing what I've done. These are not things I can define, they come from the spine, the autonomic nervous system. The album waited so long because there was also that crown, so I worked more on applied music. I wrote for the Yugoslav Drama Theater, for the Sombor Theater, series Vera, and we did that song too put with Contract for the film Keepers of the formula. With the new record I want to do a serious concert with a large orchestra and choir and to present not only music from records, but also music made for movies and theater. It should take place in August in Ljubljana's Tivoli Park. It will be the biggest solo concert I've ever done. So we will offer it to organizers in other cities as well.
In the hit Where are you going?, Go crazy. you sampled Fejatov čocek from Fejat Sejdić's repertoire, and with him you achieved success in Europe twenty years ago. Listeners abroad obviously recognized themselves in that song?
Then I signed a contract with the record company Sony i Where are you going?, Go crazy. was a pretty big hit. And now it is occasionally played on European stations. That record was released in more than sixty countries. It was successful even in Asia. The song was used by FIAT in an advertisement, it was in some five or six films. When the record's pop moment ended, it remained interesting to people involved in film and commercials. And that's how I found myself with Bjela in the film Montevideo, God saw you. I guess he felt that my music goes with those movie images. After that I did the album Grand finale and it has stretched to the present day. That's my international career.
Regarding your song Dawn breaks. from the movie Montevideo, God saw you Dragan Bjelogrlić, Milorad Dodik once made us laugh by saying that it was created in World War I and that, I quote, "it's a wonderful song that was sung for the first time by Serbian soldiers in Kajmakčalan during heavy battles, in which they fought to return to the territory of Serbia". And this January, at the Republika Srpska Day celebration, that theme was sung with a similar charge. How does it feel to be the author of a song that is, eto, more than a hundred years old?
Well, a lot has already been written about it. And Milorad Dodik is not the only one who thought so. It is incredible that even today other people consider it to be an old folk song. That's a compliment to me. Judging by myself, for example, do I know who wrote some of my favorite songs? Well, I have no idea. At the end of the day, when the music is good, it doesn't really matter. The film and the song breathed together and an unplanned success happened. Somehow it played itself out. I was the last to realize that it was performed everywhere. And I'm glad. The song is so much bigger than me that I now have the feeling that it is a folk song.
You obviously hit the spirit of the times with that song as soon as people believe in Dodik's myth. You have been dealing with applied music for a long time, so you released an album last year Tavern Ljubljana music for the theater & cafe. By what criteria did you compile that record??
It's a five-track maxi single that I did for the show Oedipus Yugoslav Drama Theater. The success of the play led me to put it on the record. I enjoyed making that music, so I was sorry that it would remain only on the theater boards.
What songs did you perform when you were in 2010?. performed at the Assembly of Trumpeters in Guca? And how did you feel there??
I never thought that someone would invite me to Guč to play. There are serious trumpet bands there. There were also Bregović and Shantel. I've been to Gucci twice and it was amazing. Guca is something special. Both the music and the ambiance. It was a great honor for me, but for a moment it was bizarre how I ended up there. And I made the repertoire as close as possible to what people expect from Gucci. I chose my stuff that has that edge, that smells of that sound, that beat.
