Biljana "Bilja" Krstić is a Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

n singer. She was born on November 9, 1955 in Niš

Niš

Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...

 and brought up on the folk traditions of central Serbia

Central Serbia

Central Serbia , also referred to as Serbia proper , was the region of Serbia from 1945 to 2009. It included central parts of Serbia outside of the autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina. The region of Central Serbia was not an administrative division of Serbia as such; it was under the...

. Biljana first studied music in Niš at the music school "Dr. Vojislav Vučković", after graduating she continued her education by travelling to Belgrade

Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

 to study music at the Belgrade University of Arts

University of Arts in Belgrade

The University of Arts in Belgrade is a public university in Belgrade, founded in 1957 as the Academy of Arts to unite four academies...

. Upon graduating in Belgrade she set out on an extremely successful career in music. To date she has released seven albums and has written scores for such films as Savior

Savior (film)

Savior is a 1998 war film starring Dennis Quaid, Stellan Skarsgård, Nastassja Kinski, and Nataša Ninković. It is about an American mercenary escorting a Serbian woman and her newborn child to a United Nations safe zone during the Bosnian War and Bosnian Genocide.- Plot :Joshua Rose , a State...

and Zona Zamfirova

Zona Zamfirova

Zona Zamfirova is a 2002 comedy-drama film directed by Zdravko Šotra. It is based on the 1906 book by Serbian author Stevan Sremac...

. She currently lives with her two daughters in the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

Biography

Bilja has been on the Yugoslav pop scene for a long time. Her stage experience started at her very young age in Chorus of Youth; later, in the '70s, she was a member of the cult bands Suncokret, and Rani Mraz, one led by Bora Đorđević and the other by Đorđe Balašević. Finally, she decided to go solo, and her first album was released in 1983.

Furthermore, she released three pop-oriented records, and did music for many theatre shows at Belgrade's National Theatre

National Theatre in Belgrade

The National Theatre was founded in the latter half of the 19th century. It is located on Republic Square, in Belgrade, Serbia.The National Theatre was declared a Monument of Culture of Great Importance in 1983, and it is protected by the Republic of Serbia....

. In the meantime, she graduated from University of Musical Arts, and started to work as a Music Editor on the National Radio

Radio Belgrade

Radio Belgrade is a state-owned and operated radio station in Belgrade, Serbia.The predecessor of Radio Beograd, Radio Beograd-Rakovica, started its program in 1924 and was a part of a state wireless telegraph station. Radio Beograd, AD started in March 1929...

 Broadcast.

After successful career in pop music, Bilja Krstić has decided to record material close to her heart ever since her childhood. For more than five years, she was patiently collecting obscure folk songs from the territories of Kosovo

Kosovo

Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...

, South Serbia, Macedonia, East Serbia, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

 and Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

. The results were the albums Bistrik (2001) and Zapisi (2003). Album Bistrik was re-released by V2-Greece record label, in May 2002.

The music performed by Bilja Krstić is a fusion, blend of traditional ethno music, a Capella songs and ethno grooves with elements of improvisation and modern music approach. Their aim is to translate folklore

Folklore

Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

 into contemporary art

Contemporary art

Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...

, their performances to awaken the heart and give rebirth and energy to forgotten emotions. Her sincere stage presence and beautiful voice received great acclaim at more than 200 concerts across the world and in her home country; it was best acknowledged when she was invited as the only female vocal performer from Mediterranean at festival "Mostra Sesc de Artes" in São Paulo

São Paulo

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

 in 2005. At the time, she was a member of "Mediterraneo Orchestra", formed of about 25 top musicians from all over the world.
Her third folk Album Tarpoš was released across Europe in early 2007, under the licence of German record label Intuition/Schott Music, and gained great success amongst World Music critics and audience.

Discography

Bilja Krstić:

• Prevari večeras svoje društvo sa mnom (1983)
• Iz unutrasnjeg džepa (1985)
• Loptom do zvezda (1990)
• Bilja (1994)

Bilja Krstić & Bistrik Orchestra:

• Bistrik (2001)
• Zapisi (2003)
• Tarpoš (2007)

External links

• Bilja's official website