*I am now reliably informed that Severina's tour of the USA and Canada is not happening, despite the claims on her website. I hear variously that sparse crowds showed up to see Severina or that she was pursued from venue to American venue by bomb threats from angry Balkan nationalists. Quite likely both of these rumors are true.
In the meantime, the redoubtable Seve – really, nothing can stop the woman – has left Croatia to record in Serbia, a bold career move which is, if anything, even gutsier than touring Canadian music halls.
http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/6636
Seve Goes International
Severina recording new album by Goran Bregovic
Severina, the popular singer who represented Croatia in Athens 2006, is working in a Belgrade studio on her new album by none other than Goran Bregovic, the popular composer and guitarist who arranged Moja Stikla for her performance at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Serbian magazine Blic claims that Goran, who is a close friend of Severina, will not be charging a fee for his services, cutting down the cost of the CD to €30.000 from the estimated initial €100.000
(((Let me re-phrase that from Serbian tabloid-speak, which tends toward the Kremlinological when it comes to suggestive pop-star tittle-tattle: Goran, who is a "close friend" of Severina, will "not be charging a fee" for his "services")))
Goran Bregovic is very demanding and very specific about his vision of their work’s outcome. So, according to the same sources, Severina is working really hard, repeating a session up to 20 times occasionally, to meet Bregovic's high standards. Asked how did Severina manage to have her cd produced by Bregovic, Blic's source said that Bregovic often says that Severina has a voice that "illuminates" ("Severina ima glas koji svijetli") (((That's very gentlemanly of Goran, considering – and if there's a musical genius in the contemporary Balkans, it's this Bregovic guy; he's really something pretty special.)))
Plans for International Promotion (((You go, girl)))
Goran plans for the album to be promoted world-wide under licence of Universal Records, so Severina’s prospects are definitely looking up. Soon she hopes to be "Seve Internacionale" instead of "Seve Nacionale" as she's currently called in her homeland, Croatia. (((Can you imagine the hassle of being a wannabe-global pop star who gets called "Miss National"? What a drag!)))
http://www.hrt.hr/dora/dora2006/izvodjaci/severina.htm
(((This Croatian site has some Severina high-heeled multimedia which isn't so visually degraded as that snippeted YouTube fodder.)))
