In December, UNESCO added sevdalinka, or sevdah, to its list of intangible world cultural heritage. It's a genre of traditional folk music which dates back to the 16th-century Ottoman Empire. For the musicians who perform the mostly sad love songs also known as the "Balkan Blues," it is a victory that will help preserve an art form they love passionately.
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00:00My soul, my dear, where are you?
00:11Damir Imamovic is a bard in the classical sense of the word.
00:15As with his father and grandfather before him,
00:17he performs music known as Sevdalinka.
00:20Their love songs, often sad ones, and their forlorn melodies
00:24form a part of Bosnian and Balkan culture
00:26that echo through the centuries back to the Ottoman Empire.
00:45Sevdalinka, or Sevda, sometimes called the Balkan Blues,
00:49is a blend of South Slavic oral poetry and music from the Ottoman Empire.
00:54The Turkish imperial realm included what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina.
00:59Sevdalinka's slow, heartache-y melodies have been sung throughout the region
01:03since the 16th century.
01:05Now, with the help of other musicians and researchers,
01:08and the United Nations,
01:10the genre is set to be preserved for many generations to come.
01:14In 2024, UNESCO recognized Sevdalinka
01:17as part of the world's intangible cultural heritage.
01:24I am the curator of the Ottoman Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina
01:27and the interpreter of Sevdalinka.
01:35I sing, I play, I read about Sevdalinka,
01:39I talk about them,
01:41or even when I walk down the street,
01:43I think about them and sing about them in my ears.
01:45So, in my life, Sevdalinka represents what it is as a form,
01:51and that is life.
01:54Sevdalinka is a song of musicians like Imamović and Brbić,
01:56which has helped bring Sevda to a new generation of Bosnians.
02:00And now, with its inclusion on UNESCO's World Heritage List,
02:04they hope Sevdalinka can find new audiences beyond the Balkan states.
02:08Sevdalinka, as such, as a song that lives,
02:12and that has lived, and that will live,
02:14is truly one of the solid foundations of the Bosnian-Herzegovina society and people.
02:20I invite young people to sing it, to keep it, and to present it all over the world.
02:50On the desecrated streets of its capital, Sarajevo,
02:52they can hear Bosnians singing the songs of their ancestors,
02:56and know that these ancient urban melodies will not fade away anytime soon.
03:02Kama Xu and Jonathan Kaplan for Taiwan Plus.