Internet celebrity: A half of Europe worships Roki’s Panthers

Although far from media spotlight and practically forgotten as a former music celebrity during the Civil War in Bosnia, the glory of Roki Vulović still lives on the internet. First, without his intention and knowledge.

His fans made big efforts to translate the songs about Ljubiša Savić Mauzer, Panteri brigade, Semberia brigade and Kozara brigade in English, Spanish and Russian. You Tube, where those songs for the international market have millions of reviews, took care of the rest.

-I know my songs are popular on the internet and that’s incredible to me. Those are awful videos ili recordings shootings which lost their quality when transferred from VHS records. I think they’re popular because those are real war footages, at the authentic sites. As for the music, I hope that the people have recognized an emotion, the songs don’t insult other people, there’s only love for one’s own country and glorification of our war heroes – Roki begins the story.

He hasn’t changed a lot during the years, still wearing sunglasses he used to wear in his music videos.

He recalls that the first year of the war was very hard, there was no time for music. After some time, the army officers who knew of his talent demanded of him to make some songs, so he had enough for an album.

He had agreed to record provided that full revenue went to the Army of The Republika Srpska and families of wounded and fallen soldiers.

-We earned more than a half of million Deuche marks by selling video tapes that was only a booked income. There were some misuses, a lot of people abroad were earning by copying those tapes and our people in USA and Australia had been buying them. Who knows who and how much gain one might have made of it. Nevertheless, the money that we received was very helpful. I remember, some people once had brought a certain sum of Australian dollars and officers in the corps said that the most important was to buy medical supplies – Vulović recalls memories.

Furthermore, he’s very proud of his good relations with friends of other faiths and nationalities – They told him that his songs were beautiful, emotionally charged and that he liked his country, as everyone should. The other part of the pride is the popularity gained around the world, mostly among Russians, Poles, Bulgarians…

-They came from Russia, only in order to interview me. Journalists from Odessa in Ukraine, as well. As they glance at me, they have looks as if they have seen a miracle. They brought me a toy modeled after my appearance, which is being sold in Russia per 10-15 euros. That guy, who brought me the toy, told me that he had received dozens of orders around Serbia and he was going to distribute them. Today, my grandchildren buy Ironmen and similar toys and I show them this one and say: “This is Roki-man.”

From Bulgarian battalion which has been serving in Afghanistan, Roki got a bottle of whiskey with the letter from soldiers who wrote him that they listened to his songs in the Middle East.

-Not only that, they also made Croatian soldiers who have been located there addicted to the songs. When they asked for a genre, they told them those were Serbian songs and they refused to listen to them. After that, they insisted on listening them again and they liked it over time.

Rodoljub Vulović retired as the director of technical high school in the city of Bijeljina. He says that he has more time for himself, he enjoys music, because the studio matrix he dreamed about in the ‘90s now are more available now. Pop-music was always his favorite, but now he considers his options with the war-time hits.

-When I look back, everything that left of those songs is in very bad technical conditions and I’m thinking about recording a dozen of them again, to show them at their best. I have to narrow down my choice, because I have a lot of songs from war-time, but I also think that the internet popularity is a good measure of what people like.

Anecdotes

Late Risto Đogo had been in touch with me. He would say “Once your songs are on air, we’ll go in the basement for an hour to have a drink and snack. The others have one or two good songs, but all of your songs are good. I also remember video shootings. I went to Kozarska brigade, we have been shooting in a chopper, the pilot was trying to shoot the best, so he approached very close to the enemy lines. I was afraid that we’d be shot down, chopper is vulnerable, that could happen in a every moment.