The musical formation “Sanja Ilić & Balkanika” is a band which is rapidly gaining popularity worldwide. Aleksandar Sanja Ilic is one of the most successful composers of several music genres in former Yugoslavia, he writes music for movies and theatre and he won many prizes on different music festivals.
His group “Balkanika“consists of young, famous and talented musicians who play old Balkan instruments and a specific formation of rock band. Balkanika came into existence in 2000, and has continually developed a sound that is without equivalent anywhere.
The music style is very hard to describe; it is an original sound, combining elements of world music based on the powerful rhythm of the Balkans, in modern feeling and sensibility.
Projects “BALKAN 2OOO“ and “BALKAN CONCEPT“ are one of the bestselling projects in last 15 years in Serbia. Project „CEEEPAJ“ was also the greatest music project in Serbia and countries in the neighborhood.
The titles like “Balkanika – Urban Ethno Explosion“ and “Balkanika- Fire of Balkan“ present in the best manner what Balkanika really stands for now.
For the last two years there were more than 100 concerts in every continent. Spectacular concerts in Moscow (Kremlin), Great Britain, United States, Canada, South Korea, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Mexico, China, Belgium, Holland, Poland, Austria, Tunisia, Algiria, Luxembourg, Italy, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Turkey, Romania … were finished with standing ovations.
According to the reactions of the public, the last project named „Stand Up“ is going to be the most successful album so far.
The group is consisted of 10 musicians. Two female ethno vocals and one male rock vocal, who, in combination with hard electronics and old Balkan instruments achieve fantastic, modern and original sound which is now heard for the first time in the Balkans. We could easily say that this sound is both, world and Balkan sound.
