Bebi Dol

Bebi Dol
Birth name	Dragana Šarić
Also known as	Bebi Dol
Born	October 2, 1962 (1962-10-02) (age 49) Belgrade, FPR Yugoslavia
Origin	Belgrade, Serbia
Genres	Pop, Rock, Dance, Disco
Occupations	singer
Years active	1980–present
Website	Official website

Bebi Dol (Cyrillic: Беби Дол, Serbo-Croatian pronunciation: [bê̞bi dɔ̂ːl], born Dragana Šarić, Cyrillic: Драгана Шарић, Serbo-Croatian pronunciation: [drǎgana ʃǎːritɕ] or [ʃâritɕ], on October 2, 1962 in Belgrade, Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Serbian female pop singer and performer. Her name is a deliberate corruption of the English Baby Doll, which she also uses in some countries to credit her records.

Career

1970s: The early years

She started her musical activity during the late 1970s, in a band called Tarkus. By 1979, she hooked up with media artist Goran Vejvoda, and drummer Ivan "Vd" Vdović to form a short-lived act, named Annoda Rouge, which never recorded any official releases. During the late 1979 she made her first studio recordings as a guest vocalist on the Igra staklenih perli album Vrt svetlosti released in 1980 by PGP RTB.

1980s: The beginning of solo career

She turned to solo career and, in collaboration with Vejvoda (with whom she was also involved romantically at the time), soon released a 7-inch single, "Mustafa" / "Na planeti uzdaha" for PGP RTB, which immediately got a lot of attention. The A-side track, "Mustafa", a unique Middle Eastern-sounding tune, was declared Song of the Year in 1980, and Bebi Dol received an award herself as Best New Act for the same year.

Encouraged by the early success, she started working on a full length debut album that eventually appeared in 1983 as Ruže i krv ("Roses and Blood"). In addition to getting the Best Debut Album of the Year award, it brought her further acclaim, as it gained exceptionally positive reviews, and good commercial reception. Other than the already well known hit "Mustafa", the additional tracks off the album that achieved sizable popularity were: "Rudi" (later in 1995 re-included on her second album Ritam srca in a remixed version called "Rudi (se budi)"), the title track, "Ruže i krv"; and "Lapis lazzuli", which came along with a highly innovative videoclip, following the colorful video revolution of the 1980s.

Then, somewhat surprisingly, considering her popularity in SFR Yugoslavia she took the lucrative offer for a singing engagement at Cairo's Sheraton Hotel. In total, she ended up spending two years in Egypt (between 1984 and 1986).

In 1986, she returned home, and won the main prize at the MESAM festival, with a song "Insh-Allah", again inspired by Middle-Eastern culture and music, recalling the original mood of her first smash hit "Mustafa". In 1987, Bebi Dol tried a second time for another the Yugoslav National Eurovision final, with song "Zrno nežnosti", taking the fourth spot in national contest. The following year, in 1988, she finished third, with "Zatvori mama prozore". She also took part in MESAM, with song "Slatke suze ljubavi" ('Sweet Tears of Love'), and took second place, later in 1988. In 1989, Bebi Dol appeared yet again at MESAM, winning third place, with a ballad, called "Kad sreća odlazi". According to the jury, this was the best song of the Festival, and thus won the Special Prize.

1990s: Eurovision and commercial decline

The 1990s began with another try at MESAM, but this time, in the 1990 edition, she had to settle for tenth place. In 1991, Bebi Dol finally won the National Eurovision Contest, and went on to represent SFR Yugoslavia in Rome, with the song "Brazil". She would become the very last artist to ever represent SFR Yugoslavia as a whole, which de facto ceased to exist later that year. However, Bebi Dol only took one point for the evening.

After this, Bebi Dol basically left the spotlight for four years, returning in 1995, with her second full length album, Ritam srca ("The Rhythm of the Heart"). The album featured a few new songs, in dance and disco rhythms, with a touch of pop rock, a couple of ballads, the MESAM song "Slatke suze ljubavi" from 1988, and the above mentioned remix called "Rudi (Se budi)", as well as the Eurofestival song "Brazil". As for the latter, this appeared in its second version, re-entitled "Brazil (Bum bum bum, je je je"), the sub-title of which had been dropped, in order to participate in the 1991 International Eurofestival, because the "bum bum bum je je je" section, that was sampled, and repeatedly included, throughout the original song, from the beginning to the end, may be taken by many to recall the noise of bombs ("boom boom boom"), not to mention that the Serbian "je je je" (either meaning a form of the verb "to be" - in fact, "is" - and a simple musically nice-sounding nonsense - something similar to 'yeh yeh', as in this case) would sound like English 'yeah yeah yeah', which might be taken by some as a "yes to war".^{[citation needed]}

The most interesting moment of the 1995 album is probably represented by Bebi Dol's cover version of Madonna's "Take a Bow", which was literally translated as "Pokloni se" in Serbian. The Ritam srca full length work achieved significant popularity at the time, mainly promoted by its opening tune "Hajde da", the single "Da pričamo o ljubavi" and its related videoclip, as well as the title track "Ritam srca", and one more cover version of the evergreen "Over the Rainbow", also literally translated into Serbian as "Iznad duge". This was followed by more public inactivity, during the late 1990s, before she finally reappeared in the early 2000s.

2000s: Partial comeback

In 2002, seven years after the huge success of Ritam srca, she finally released her long awaited third album, titled Ljuta sam. However, the work was not well received, either by the critics, who had only good words for the record's production quality, or the general public, who did not love it so much. Only two tracks achieved modest radio play: "Krv, sreća, suze i znoj" and "Smejem se".

She took part in Beovizija 2003 festival with the song "Tvrdoglava" and in 2005 she appeared on the Bajaga i Instruktori album Šou počinje u ponoć in 2005 on the tracks "Bademi i so" and "Pesma slobode" (a cover version of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song").

In December 2006, she released a cover album, either titled Čovek rado izvan sebe živi in Serbian, and It's a man's man's man's world in English. The record, which got plenty of airplay, includes new renditions of international classics in English, such as "Help!", "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", "Moon River", and "Lush Life".

In 2008 she participated in a televised competition to find the hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade but was voted out in the early stages.

Discography

Studio albums

• Ruže i krv (1983)
• Ritam srca (1995)
• Ljuta sam (2002)
• Čovek rado izvan sebe živi / It's a man's man's man's world (2006)
• Sonične vibracije (2012)

Live albums

• Veče u pozorištu (2007)

Compilations

• Pokloni se - Najveći hitovi (2008)

Singles

• "Mustafa" / "Na planeti uzdaha" (1981)
• "Rudi" (1983)
• "Inšalah" / "Ruža na dlanu" (1986) - Special "Džuboks" magazine 7" single; appears on the A-side with "Inšalah", while on the B-side is Zana song "Ruža na dlanu"
• "Prove To All" / "How Good Not To Love" (1986)
• "Brazil" (1990) single

External links

• Dragana Saric at the Internet Movie Database
• Dosadilo mi je da me vrebaju za neku korist, Blic, April 6, 2008
• Bebi Dol at Discogs
• Bebi Dol Videos

Preceded by Tajči

Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1991

Succeeded by Extra Nena for FR Yugoslavia

Persondata
Name	Dol, Bebi
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 2, 1962
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death