A Thompson Song Ahead of His Belgrade Concerts: Jakov Jozinović Becomes a Target in Both Serbia and Croatia

In recent years Jakov Jozinović has been a rare phenomenon: a Croatian singer who fills venues in Serbia. A string of well-attended concerts, big crowds and the kind of goodwill a performer from Croatia rarely gets. Then a video surfaced on social media of him belting out "Ako ne znaš što je bilo", a song by Marko Perković Thompson.

In Serbia that song is read in one simple way - as a celebration of the crimes against Serbs and their expulsion from Croatia in the nineties. There, Thompson is a name associated with Ustaša nostalgia, and anyone who sings his music automatically becomes suspect. Nobody forced Jozinović to sing it: the video shows him singing it at the top of his lungs.

The Belgrade concerts are scheduled for 24 and 25 October. Posts started appearing on X from users saying they no longer want to go. One is offering a ticket for the first night, others are asking whether they can get their money back. Headlines about "mass cancellations" arrived within hours, even though so far it amounts to a handful of posts and a storm in the comments.

The irony is that Jozinović is under fire from the other side of the border too. Croatian war veterans' associations have publicly called him out again, this time over his announced concerts in Niš. One side holds it against him that he sings Thompson; the other, that he sings in Serbia at all. A singer with an audience on both sides is now stuck between two national reflexes.

For years, Balkan pop music has lived off audiences that cross borders faster than politics does. One video is enough for everything to smell of the nineties again. Whether the 24 and 25 October concerts go ahead in front of full houses will be decided by ticket sales, not by X.