A VOICE THAT ECHOES

One does not have to be an exclusively literate music expert to be able to say that Meri Cetinic presents an exclusive name of a home-born pop scene. Furthermore, in the last decade she has made it to the very top, has been proclaimed to be the best female singer several times by which she became an unavoidable figure that deviates from the average and represents more than a musical standard that is offered to all listeners. Some of her records have reached editions of which any other domestic female singer could only dream of.

So, what is the secret of her success, why did we welcome this Blato inbred voice so gladly and eagerly? Her, who's beginnings were with the band from Split called «Che», while afterwards she would be shortly swimming along on the back of «Delfini» (Dolphins) famous band of that time. She didn't settle with them either but swam on to unite with «More» (Sea), a phase that ejected her characteristic vocals to the attention of public and which culminated on recordings and concerts later on in solo version. What is it that this voice posesses that others don't?

It would be wrong to conclude it's about a trend that is most current and which provides highest sellings, wide audience. It is, more than anything, that voice filled with warmth, suggestiveness and charm, melodic and profuse, recognizeable and soothing. A voice that one can identify himself with and which can arouse the listener either when balladlike and melancolic as well as when provoking in disco manner. A voice that simply echoes.

Meri – a word sufficiant enough for everyone to know who it is behind it – in her voice and interpretation contains a winning union of the good old "traditional pop music" and the new, modern sound. No, it isn't some compromize, it is simply something Else. It is Janis Joplin, Carole King and Roberta Flack, her mucis idols, in one. This doesn't mean that she, Meri, emerged from these names like from under an «indigo». By no means! – those who listen to her music will know better. Her voice – it is just Meri!

Unique and irreplaceable.

However, Meri – is not only about that fresh, piercing voice, but a very special athmosphere that surrounds her singing. It is a kind of a culture of interpretation, an ability to draw the audience near in order to let it know what lies on your (her) soul. It is a vocal craft of an enormous range, when soft in lamentation or when in its full force. It is the way of a ballade, intoxicating and flickering, expressive through flitter or deep emotions; it is that disco-pop about her in its highest zeal and dynamics. It is a voice that echoes.

It is, after all, a passion. Meri is equally passionate when she is singing about the sea, or about life and its four «Seasons», she flies off with the «Swallow», patient in expectation and lamentation «In passing» awaiting sailors, singing about Him and Her, about love and joy, hopes and fears. Whatever she sings about, she knows the measure, she knows the true power of the Note and of the Word. She breathes in the soul to her songs. She is often a composer herself, she «Sits and Plays», never failing to feel the song and its Mediteranian uniqueness. She is a true model of the temperament and the mentality of the climate she belongs to, of the light that comes together before it disperses like a wave in droplets of which one can see the  flashing of the sun or the reflection of a rainbow. That is Meri.

But, Meri – that is her associates, a finely selected team. Those are the works of Zdenko Runjic, Slobodan M. Kovacevic and others (not to mention her own!), those are attentively selected lyrics (also by the undersigned). And last (or more likely- first of all) those are exquisite modern productions and arrangements by her brother Ante which put a characteristic colour, sensibility and technical perfection over her songs. And over her voice. A voice that echoes.

Voila, all this is Meri. On this record as well.

Jakša Fiamengo