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Send us your review:
Describe the atmosphere and live music at a local pub, restaurant, festival, church or temple, club night.... inspire other people to check it out!
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Musician: T茅a Hodzic
Location: London
Instruments: voice, guitar
Music: Balkan
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HOW I CAME TO THIS MUSIC听听听听听听听听听听WHERE I PLAY听听听听听听听听听听A FAVOURITE SONG |
  
Listen to Tea and fellow-refugees perform with Eliza Carthy at
Celebrating Sanctuary: Conversations with
Refugee Artists
(London Arts, 2002) |
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 听听Listen (4'55) to Sonja sung by T茅a Hodzic
听听Listen (37'41) to T茅a, Vanya - Bronislav Krawczyk and Dylan Fowler showcasing at the World On Your Street tent, WOMAD 2002
听听Listen (31'04) to T茅a playing with Romany Rad playing at WOMAD 2002
A favourite song:
I鈥檓 playing guitar and singing and Dave Kelbie from Szapora is accompanying me on Portugese guitar. It's an old Russian song. But I鈥檓 singing it in Serbo-Croat.
I鈥檝e known this song all my life, it鈥檚 very popular in former Yugoslavia. It was on the radio and everybody knew it. If you went to somebody鈥檚 party, somebody would sing it. You know we have this custom, if you go to someone鈥檚 party or dinner party you bring along any instrument you play and after the meal, we would end up actually sitting down and singing. That鈥檚 when I first heard it, I was maybe seven years old.
 But there鈥檚 something else. When I recorded this song, I took the CD home and my mother was visting us. When she heard the song she started crying. I didn鈥檛 know why, but she explained that it was her mother鈥檚 favourite song and up till then I had not been aware of that. It was a really weird coincidence. For me, it brings back memories of beautiful days I had in Sarajevo, of all my friends who are there, of my first love...
It has beautiful lyrics- about a jealous man who kills his wife鈥檚 lover. Now that just sounds like a song about a crime, but its more beautiful than that. He stabs his wife鈥檚 lover and ends up imprisoned for life in Siberia, but for the rest of his life he鈥檚 longing for his wife鈥hat鈥檚 actually the point of the whole story, so it鈥檚 very much a love song. And Sonja is obviously the name of his wife, and every single night, he鈥檚 dreaming about her. The time is passing but his love is eternal.
Sonja
The steppe has spread endlessly,
Covered with Siberian snow,
The protruding hills are longing,
For Sun and Moon.
And in a hut covered by snow,
There鈥檚 a feverish man, as pale as ghost.
There鈥檚 one desire haunting him,
And his tired eyes looking for a woman鈥檚 face.
(Refrain:)
Sonja, Sonja your dark hair,
I kissed endlessly in my dreams,
I can鈥檛 forget you-
The flower of valleys of Volga,
Sonja, the time is passing like river,
My love is boundless.
Please hear my screams and sights
And the cries of my heart,
I鈥檓 all covered with Siberian snow.
Once we were husband and wife,
I loved you as I鈥檇 love my God,
I didn鈥檛 know you were untrue to me,
I didn鈥檛 know of your lover.
But one day I saw you in his arms kissing,
I stabbed him straight through his heart,
I was taken away tied as a murderer.
T茅a's Womad 2002 set at the World on your Street tent was warmly received, not least by Clive Davis in The Times:
"...The incidental pleasures can sometimes make more of an impression than the headliners at the event as sprawling as WOMAD. Strolling past Radio 3's tiny 'World On Your Street' tent on Sunday, I found a knot of people entranced by T茅a Hodzic, a Bosnian singer-guitarist who was performing a lament in the company of an accordionist and clarinettist.
An architecture graduate who came to this country as a refugee, Hodzic has found a niche as part of that vivacious Balkan-style group Szapora. Her voice haunted me for the rest of the day. It was reassuring to find that, even in its 20th year, WOMAD has not lost its air of serendipity."
The Times, July 30 2002
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