DIVANHANA

Divanhana like to think outside the box and have worked with the popular Turkish singer and actress Suzan Kardeş, among others, in recent years. One of the highlights of their career is an artistic collaboration with US musical star Bradley Dean. So this is how the Sevdalinka reached Broadway for the first time!
Divanhana have even used the enforced corona isolation for a new project: The “Quarantine EP” was largely recorded on the individual band members’ smartphones while the musicians were scattered across six different cities in their home country. In this way, Divanhana made the best of the pandemic situation with limited resources.
“Zavrzlama” was recorded in Slovenia in February 2020, shortly before the first lockdown. The album was not mixed until June 2021 in Sarajevo. The hauntingly reduced album opener “Na Kuslatu Se Mahrama Vihori” shows Šejla Grgić at the height of her abilities and skillfully maintains the balance between intimacy and latent threat. The lively “Cilim”, on the other hand, invites you to dance, while “Peno” bows to the legendary Roma singer and songwriter Saban Bajramovic, one of the “wildest talents” in Yugoslavia during the Tito era. “Opa Opa”, on the other hand, written by the well-known Serbian composer Radivoje Radivojevic, lives entirely from Šejla Grgić’s seductive voice and surprises with luscious Latin piano and horn sounds. “Voce Rodilo” and “Zova” were both written by Divanhana keyboardist Neven Tunjic, who has confidently established himself as one of the most exciting young songwriters in the long tradition of Balkan folk music.

– BIOGRAPHY –

Divanhana was formed at the beginning of 2009 by a group of students from Music Academy in Sarajevo. The band performs traditional music from Balkan in their new recognizable arrangements influenced by Jazz, Pop and Classical music. They especially focus on nurturing and presenting sevdah, the urban traditional music of Bosnia & Herzegovina. In addition to a very dedicated and exploring approach to tradition, Divanhana enriches their creative opus with originally written music inspired by traditional songs.

Divanhana developed their concert activities by taking part in prestigious festivals such as 12 Points in Porto, WOMEX in Thessaloniki, Pannonica, EXPO 2020 in Dubai, Budapest Ritmo . Their music has reached various parts of Europe, Canada and Asia. They held almost five hundred concerts in their career. Since their performance leaves no one indifferent, they often returned to some places and concert halls.

Divanhana has released five studio albums so far: Dert (2009), Bilješke iz šestice (2013), Zukva (2015), Kardeş (2018) and Zavrzlama (2022). Also, in 2017 Divanhana released Live in Mostar, as the highlight of Divanhana’s Zukva tour. The following year, band delivered a documentary film about this tour during which the band had held more than 60 concerts in various European cities.

On January 28, 2022 CPL Music from Germany released the new Zavrzlama album for the worldwide market and Belgrade’s Multimedia Music for the territory of the former Yugoslavia. This, their latest album so far, Zavrzlama received extremely positive reviews and criticism from eminent European and World media. For two months Zavrzlama was the leader of the European radio panel World Music Charts and the high second place of the World critic panel Transglobal World Music Charts. The British Songlines Magazine highlights Zavrzlama as Top of the World album, while the founder and longtime editor of the magazine Simon Broughton already sees this album as the sevdah album of the year.

The success of the latest album and the eponymous tour led to the fact that during the spring of 2023, Songlines Magazine declared Divahanana the best group in the world in the World Music category.

Divanhana are graduates of the MOST Balkan Music Export program and also featured on The Bridge for Balkan Music Vol One CD.