Since the beginning of the year, the mayor of Pula, Filip Zoričić, has been chased by the painter. First, news spread throughout the region that he had banned the folk singers' concert scheduled for March 25 at the Sports Center, where Duško Kuliš, Dragan Kojić Keba, Ana Bekuta and Zorana Micanović were supposed to perform. The "banned" singers reacted strongly, sparks were exchanged between the mayor and the owner of the company that organizes the concerts, the media in Serbia wondered how such a thing was possible in "pro-Yugoslav Pula".
Zdrak Colica concert in Pula. 25.08.2023, photo: Dario Horvat...
Somehow the dust about it settled when local journalists called the mayor and asked him: "Did you see that the camels arrived in Pula?". What kind of camels are they now, Zoričić, otherwise known as a "hajdukovac" and from Split "on temporary work" in Istria, was clutching his head. Namely, on August 1, the "Candy" circus arrived in Pula, whose program includes spots with camels. The Croatian Animal Protection Act of 2017 prohibits the keeping of animals in circuses and their use in performances, with the exception of domestic animals that can be kept and used "for the purpose of showing behavior characteristic of a species that is identical to the behavior of animals in the natural environment." The organizers of the circus asserted that camels are domestic animals (in Africa and Asia they certainly are), and that the area where the tents were erected is owned not by the City of Pula but by the Republic of Croatia, so the circus still took place despite the opposition of Mayor Zoričić.
While on the terrace of the "Fabbrica" restaurant in Pula with friends last Friday, a few hours before Zdravko Čolić's concert in the Arena, we were recounting those anecdotes and the "Troubles of Filip", Mayor Zoričić was also passing by, heading with his friends to the concert of a great regional star. The smile does not leave his face, finally everything is fine and there will be no headache. There were many big concerts in the Pula Arena this season, but Čolić is the first performer from Belgrade to sing at this "holy place" this year, after the March scandal with bans. Before him, famous artists performed there years ago: Elton John, Leonard Cohen, Luciano Pavarotti, Nora Jones, David Gilmore, Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys, Tame Impal, Florence + The Machine... This summer, the Arena hosted Simply Red, Robbie Williams, Dalmatin, Imagine Dragons, Dina Merlin, Dubioza collective and Eros Ramacotti.
The amphitheater in Pula was built between 100 and 200 AD, by order of the Roman emperor Vespesian, at a time when this city was the regional center of Roman power, then known as Pietas Julia. Gladiator and knight fights, fights with wild beasts and other performances were held in it, which were the most important social events in the ancient world. It could accommodate up to 25.000 spectators. Today's maximum capacity of the Arena is 5.000 spectators, and since only seats were sold for Čolić's concert, it is estimated that there were about 3.000 of us that evening.
Zdrak Colica concert in Pula. 25.08.2023, photo: Dario Horvat...
The concert was sold out a month and a half in advance, and tapkaros sold tickets for days on social networks and ads on regional portals. There were also around the Arena itself before the concert. It is important to say that Zdravko Čolić's concert is taking place in an atmosphere when there are discussions in Serbia about whether Dino Merlin should be allowed to perform again in Belgrade's "Arena", and these days the media in both countries have written widely about the case of the arrest of 63-year-old singer Rajko Lalić. , a member of the "Serbian Tromeđa" group. Namely, he was arrested at the entrance to Croatia "due to the suspicion that he sang Chetnik songs, which hurt the reputation of the Republic of Croatia".
And then, Zdravko comes on stage and starts singing: "Now you are very close to me, I am no longer there on the stage. For you, I am just a star, and there is nothing else in me..." and it becomes clear to everyone that they are witnessing something completely timeless, as my colleague Zlatko Crnogorac said, it was like a "portal to Yugoslavia".
The event, the audience and the atmosphere are completely above and beyond what we can read and see in the media for days and decades. Before the concert, someone wondered if Chola would sing April in Belgrade since he didn't do it at the concert in Zagreb. He sang, and on that occasion the audience completely outvoted him, and not only the rather numerous part of it that came to the concert from Serbia.
We met Zdravko Čolić a couple of days earlier on the plane on the Belgrade-Pula flight when he was in the company of his daughters Una and Lara, who were the real stars at the concert itself, around whom all the photographers were circling. There were other famous people in the audience - from Marijana Mateus, who sat in the front row, to Radet Šerbedžija, along with Čolić, certainly one of the few remaining giants of the public scene of the former common state. Radeta was also accompanied by his daughters - Mimi, Nina and Vanja.
Greeting the audience, Čolić mentioned "dear Croats" but also "our paradise from the whole region who came to the concert", justifying his half-century image of a "good guy" who never made controversial or nationalist statements. Unlike some others, Čolić never flattered the home crowd excessively. Last summer, I wrote for "Vreme" about the Rolling Stones' concert in Stockholm, commented on Mick Jagger's vitality and his jumping around the stage. Only a few years younger, Čolić preserved an impeccable line and only a few more wrinkles than in 2018, when he last performed in the Pula Arena, they betrayed a man in his eighth decade of life.
While female fans threw stuffed toys to the late Đorđe Balašević on the stage, mostly the "little white rabbit" from the song Some new kids, in Čolić's case, the most fanatical ones, mostly in their mature years, climbed up on the stage to kiss him, hug him, take photos... The musician obviously likes it, similarly to Zvonko Bogdan, so the security looked favorably on the wandering around the stage of these contemporary Blanche Dubois.
What set this Čolić concert apart from all the others I attended was the international symphony orchestra that accompanied it. As part of the "Zdravko Čolić symphony" project, the biggest regional male singing star was accompanied by a large, professional ensemble composed of musicians from the Novi Sad Big Band, and members of the Choir and Orchestra of the Serbian National Theater Opera, all together with maestro Fedor Vrtačnik at the helm, the man behind several of the most innovative projects combining classical and pop music in our region and more recently in Europe.
Among the musicians, the striking saxophonist Gabor Bunford (51), who was born in Bečej, lives in Palić, and performs all over the former Yugoslavia, stands out. He performed with stars like Šaban Bajramović, Đorđe Balašević, Vasil Hadžimanov, Vlada Georgijev and others.
Čolić sang exactly 30 songs and then three more encores. On the big screen at the beginning of each track in a Broadway design, her name, the year she appeared, as well as the authors of the lyrics and music were announced. That's how some of us, less informed, found out that it was Hungarian written by Đorđe Balašević, and most of the others by Kornelija Kovač and Goran Bregović.
The only complaints I heard were not about Čolić and the musicians who accompanied him, but about the logistics of the Arena itself: at the bars, drinks could only be bought with cash, as if it were 1998, and those who had to visit the toilet did not have the best impressions.
photo: r. shepherd...
We said goodbye to the agile Čolić manager Dragan Đuk and headed for the exit while the last song echoed from the walls of the Arena, where 1800 years ago "a brave Greek wrestled with a tiger" - My song. On the sidewalk in front, a man was selling black men's and women's T-shirts with the words "Love is only a word" written on them in white letters. Someone later told me that it was the famous "Krpica" from Varaždin, who you can see at all concerts throughout Croatia and the region selling T-shirts with the motifs of the bands performing that night.
As we walked back to the hotel, the lyrics of the song echoed in my head You are in my blood. Čolić is truly "the last and the first", the last active great Yugoslav male music star, and at the same time still the first when it comes to ticket sales and popularity in all six states of the former common state.
