Haris Abdagić is a prominent Bosnian artist and cultural worker. He was born in Bugojno in 1978. and lived in many cities – Zagreb, Sarajevo, London – before his current destination, Zenica, where he lives and works as director of the City Library. He attained diploma in World literature and Library at Sarajevo University. In addition, he collaborates with many media outlets (including BHRT – Bosnian National TV and TV of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina), as a composer and screenwriter. His many screenplays were broadcast on BHRT and FTV and his most recent screenplay will be performed at Sarajevo National Theater.
Harris’s story (if we ignore growing up, basic music education and early artistic profiling) begins in the wartime Bugojno, when he was discovered by British photographer Dave Clarke and offered to come to England. For the next two years, Harris spent time in London and Liverpool, playing concerts for peace and attending music production semesters at the prestigious L.I.P.A., the academy founded by Paul McCartney and Mark Knopfler, among others. 20 years later, as circle of life goes around, Knopfler shared Harris’s cover of “Money for Nothing” on his official Facebook page, which led to significant interest of regional media for Haris and his music.
After returning to BiH, Harris collaborated with several bands, including the band “Sky Above the Landscape,” an orchestra formed to promote the film of the same name by director Nenad Đurić. Interestingly, the band outlived the film and continued to work for next 3 years. The role of frontman in this Orchestra has established Haris as one of the forerunners of the new BiH ethno-rock wave, which placed the Balkan musical heritage in a modern context and popularized traditional music of the Balkan people.
Haris has also recorded several solo singles, including “Povjeruj u sebe” – a song he recorded for BHRT music production with prominent Bosnian pianist Sinan Alimanović. He also recorded “Umorni Blues”, a duet with Emir Hot, the best guitarist of Balkans. The highlight of Haris’s music career so far is last year’s appearance with Joan Baez at her Sarajevo concert. Thus, (as a host of Joan Baez), through three days of intense socializing, he had opportunity to co-operate with one of his greatest singer-songwriter and human role models.
BalkanEros Banditos
La Musique Speaks Tutto Linguae
The crown of Haris’s music career is the band BalkanEros Banditos, which he co-founded with French guitarist and producer Samuel Engelmayer and his colleague, professor of music, Aldin Šehić. The band has existed since 2011, and so far has released 3 studio albums, for prominent record labels – Face TV and Croatia Records. In addition, they recorded, in a duet with the famous Turkish clarinetist Husnu Senlendirici, 3 singles for Turkish national television. In 2014, the band was discovered by Australian film director Stella Macdonald who used their music for her movie „My Imaginary Life“ that premiered at Cannes festival the same year.
In the 8 years of active work, BalkanEros Banditos have held many concerts and collaborated with many artists and media outlets. One of their biggest projects was 2013 tour named „Ulicamamo“ – „We are streeting“ where they played pop-up concerts in city centers all over the country. They used this opportunity to connect with local artists in all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also to portray the word „estrada“ as down to earth, art that touches the rhythm of the street (la strada) and is much closer to people this way. This project had a great impact directly to the people they met, but also to media that was very much interested in covering their journey.
Since 2016 BalkanEros Banditos has been the host of the most watched TV show in B&H for last three years. The show (TV Bingo Show) still airs primetime on FTV every Friday night.
„La Musique Speaks Tutto Linguae“ is official slogan of the band, taken from real life anecdote by Haris father, as he spoke about music as the most connective tissue among people of the world. Even with the power of saving lives, that musicians experienced many times.