Tајновита mисирлу: варијанте једне интернационалне мелодије медитеранског порекла у популарној музици XX века
The mysterious Misirlou

Summary/Abstract: My article deals with an unusual story on the roots of a song that has left a signifi cant imprint on the twentieth century popular music all over the world. It is the song Misirlou, created somewhere on the territory of the Ottoman Empire, probably in Asia Minor. The author of this song is unknown. It was created in the so-called rebetiko musical style, typical of the Greeks from Asia Minor, who developed that style after the World War I. The fi rst recordings of this song were made in the 1930s by Greek musicians Tethos Demetriades and Mihalis Patrinos. In no time, there was a true proliferation of different versions of this song, in almost every possible musical genre: jazz, latino, taksym, klezmer, makam, Serbian folk, hip hop, trash metal, pop and rock’n’roll. A number of these versions are mentioned in the article. The fact that this song is considered by many nations – Greeks, Turks, Arabs, Serbs, Jews, Americans – as their own, demonstrates its aptitude for incredible metamorphoses. What attracted me to this song was the story on how it was appropriated into Serbian folk music by the remarkable composer and singer Dragoljub Dragan Toković. The song was called Lela Vranjanka [Lela, the girl from Vranje] and became a standard in the so-called “Vranje folk music”, marvelously interpreted by the singer Staniša Stošić. I also compare various textual versions of Misirlou, in different languages, in order to show its parallel development in verse.

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