Bebi Dol
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Bebi Dol (in the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet: Беби Дол - Serbian phonetic spelling for English Baby Doll, which she also uses, in some countries only, to credit her own records) is a Serbian female pop / rock / dance / disco solo singer and performer. She was born Dragana Šarić (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгана Шарић - her surname is pronounced as /sharich/, her typically Serbian first name /dràgana/ is stressed on the first "a") to a musical family - her father, Milenko, being a jazz musician - on October 2, 1962, in Belgrade, SR Serbia (then SFR Yugoslavia).
The 1970's: early years with bands
She started her musical activity during the late 1970s, in a band called Tarkus. By 1979, she hooked up with media artist Goran Vejvoda, and drummer Vd (born Ivan Vdović) to form a short-lived act, named Annoda Rouge, which never recorded any official releases.
The 1980's: solo career, first single hit, and debut album "Ruže i krv"
She then turned to a solo career and, in collaboration with Vejvoda himself (musician, composer, visual artist, performer, photographer, writer, and actor), soon released a double A-side single, "Mustafa" / "Na planeti uzdaha" ('Mustapha' / 'Sighs on the planet'), for PGP RTB (one of the main labels from former SFR Yugoslavia), which immediately got a lot of attention. The A-side track, "Mustafa", an original Oriental-sounding tune, was declared Song of the Year in 1980, and Bebi Dol received an award herself as Best New Act (corresponding to Best Newcomer in Brit Awards) for the same year.
Encouraged by such an early big success, she started working on a full length debut album, entitled Ruže i krv ('Roses and Blood'), that eventually appeared in 1983. In addition to getting the Best Debut Album of the Year award, it brought her further acclaim, as it gained exceptionally positive reviews, and huge commercial reception. Other than the already big hit "Mustafa", the additional tracks off the album that achieved sizable popularity were: "Rudi", which was later re-included on her successful full length second album, the 1995 Ritam srca, in a remixed version, called "Rudi (Se budi"), meaning 'Rudi (Wakes Up)'; the title track, "Ruže i krv"; and "Lapis lazzuli", which came along with a highly innovative videoclip, following the colourful video revolution of the Eighties.
Then, somewhat surprisingly, considering her popularity in SFR Yugoslavia, Bebi Dol spent a couple of years (between 1984 and 1986) in Egypt, where she took the lucrative offer for a singing engagement, in Cairo's Sheraton Hotel.
In 1986, she returned home, and won the main prize at the Belgrade Music Festival known as MESAM, with a song, entitled "Insh-Allah", again inspired by Oriental culture and music, recalling the original mood of her first smash hit, "Mustafa". In 1987, Bebi Dol tried a second time for another the Yugoslav National Eurovision final, with song "Zrno nežnosti" ('Pearl of Gentleness'), which took the fourth spot in national contest. The following year, in 1988, she finished third, with "Zatvori mama prozore" ('Close the Windows, Mum'). She also took part in MESAM, with song "Slatke suze ljubavi" ('Sweet Tears of Love'), and took second spot, later in 1988. In 1989, Bebi Dol appeared yet again at MESAM, winning third place, with a ballad, called "Kad sreća odlazi" ('When the Happiness is Gone'). According to the jury, this was the best song of the Festival, and thus won the Special Prize.
The 1990's: Eurofestival experience, Yugoslavian triumph, and second album "Ritam srca"
The Nineties began with another try at MESAM, but this time, in the 1990 edition, she just had to settle for tenth place. In 1991, Bebi Dol finally won the National Eurovision Contest, and went on to represent SFR Yugoslavia in Rome, with her song "Brazil". The singer would become the very last one artist to ever represent SFR Yugoslavia as a whole, which, later in the same year, then ceased to exist; the next year, in 1992, there were indeed 5 separate acts to represent the 5 newborn countries resulting from former Yugoslavia: Serbia/Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, and Macedonia. However, Bebi Dol only took one point for the evening, though "Brazil" definitely deserved a higher placing, which may in fact have been just a reaction to the political situation in Yugoslavia, where a furious civil war was being fought, because back home, instead, the song became a huge hit, and the copyright was sold to Italy, Greece and Benelux countries.
After this, Bebi Dol basically left the spotlight for four years, returning in 1995, with her second full length album, Ritam srca ('The Rhythm of the Heart'). The album featured a few new songs, in dance and disco rhythms, with a touch of pop rock, a couple of wonderful ballads, the MESAM song "Slatke suze ljubavi" from 1988, and the above mentioned remix called "Rudi (Se budi)", as well as the Eurofestival song "Brazil". As for the latter, this appeared in its second version, re-entitled "Brazil (Bum bum bum, je je je"), the sub-title of which had been dropped, in order to participate in the 1991 International Eurofestival, because the "bum bum bum je je je" section, that was sampled, and repeatedly included, throughout the original song, from the beginning to the end, may be taken by many to recall the noise of bombs ('boom boom boom'), not to mention that the Serbian "je je je" (either meaning a form of the verb "to be" - in fact, "is" - and a simple musically nice-sounding nonsense - something similar to 'yeh yeh', as in this case) would sound like English 'yeah yeah yeah', which might be taken by some as a "yes to war". Anyway, dropping the subtitle and related samples surely did not help the song, since the track got no higher than the next to last position.
The most interesting moment of the 1995 album is probably represented by Bebi Dol's cover version of Madonna's "Take a Bow", which was literally translated as "Pokloni se" in Serbian. The Ritam srca full length work achieved significant popularity at the time, mainly promoted by its opening tune "Hajde da" ('Come on'), the single "Da Pricamo o ljubavi" ('Yes, let's talk about love') and its related videoclip, as well as the title track "Ritam srca", and one more cover version of the evergreen "Over the Rainbow", also literally translated into Serbian as "Iznad duge". This was followed by more public inactivity, during the late 1990s, before she finally reappeared in the early 2000s.
The 2000's: comeback, third album "Ljuta sam", and 2006 cover album
In 2002, seven years after the huge success of Ritam srca, she finally released her long awaited third album, titled Ljuta sam ('I'm Angry'). However, the work was not well received, either by the critics, who had only good words for the record's production quality, or the general public, who did not love it so much. Only two tracks achieved modest radio play: "Krv, sreća, suze i znoj" ('Blood, Happiness, Tears, and Sweat') and "Smejem se" ('I'm Laughing').
In 2003, she took part in Beovizija, the Serbian Eurosong selection semi-final, with the song "Tvrdoglava" ('Stubborn').
In December 2006, she released a new album, this time made up of all covers, either titled Čovek rado izvan sebe živi in Serbian, and It's a man's man's man's world in English (exactly translating the former). The record, which got plenty of airplay, includes new renditions of international classics in English, such as "Help" by The Beatles, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", "Moon River", and a beautiful version of Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life".
Discography
- 1983 - "Ruže i krv" (first album)
- 1995 - "Ritam srca" (second album)
- 2002 - "Ljuta sam" (third album)
- 2006 - "Čovek rado izvan sebe živi/It's a man's man's man's world" (cover album)