Esma Redzepova, queen of Roma music: Her husband was 22 years older than her, they adopted as many as 47 sons and one daughter

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Esma Redzepova published about 580 songs, including two platinum and eight gold records. She has given over 8.000 concerts in over 30 different countries around the world. She has performed in numerous prestigious opera houses. 

The late queen of Roma music, whose career was filled with evergreens, Esma Redzepova, found her place under the sun, was an extremely humane woman and a Roma icon.

Есма
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She was born on August 8, 1943 in Skopje, in a family with six children. Life was difficult, but the parents managed to educate their children. Nine-year-old Esma and her brother were members of the folklore society, where she had the opportunity to learn to sing and dance to complicated musical rhythms.

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- My childhood was very difficult, but I used it as a big school. In fact, I experienced the hardest part of life as a child. While many grew up carefree, I did various things, brought milk, cleaned apartments, cared for the dog of a famous doctor from Skopje, and spent the money I earned economically. I loved the cinema, I paid for the tickets with my savings. I struggled with prejudices, I always had to prove myself to someone, but it paid off, I am grateful to God - said the queen of Roma music in an interview.

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She was bothered by the prejudices she encountered at school.

- When people in the family love each other, poverty is not severe. It was the hardest for me when I went to the first grade and when they called me Gypsy. Nobody wanted to sit on a bench with me. That is when I realized for the first time that I am different from the other children - Esma recalled.

She started playing music when she was 10 years old and when she started singing.

With the permission of her parents, Esma went on tour with Stevo Teodosievski. Thus began her great career.

Although he was 22 years older than her, they eventually got married. They did not have children of their own, but adopted 47 boys and one girl. They have twice been nominated for the Nobel Prize.

Есма и Стево
Profimedia

- I'm not sorry I did not get it. If some people think I should get it, then okay, if not, nothing to anyone. As far as I know, a Nobel Prize can be nominated seven times, if I am destined to win it, it will surely happen. I believe in God and if something is predestined, so be it. If it is not, all the work is in vain - Esma said on one occasion.

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Esma together with the Ensemble "Teodosievski" recorded their first gramophone record in 1961, in the studio of Jugoton, which is now called Croatia Records. The song "Chaje shukarije", which Esma wrote herself, was also on that album.

That song in Romani language in the time of the former Yugoslavia achieved great results and success, and today there is almost no person in Europe or in the Balkans who has not heard of that song.

Many of her songs were traditional Roma songs, inspired by Roma music and Macedonian song. Their joint work resulted in success throughout Yugoslavia, and various local Roma communities were interested in them.

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Stevo and Esma had the honor of visiting India three times. In 1976, they visited India for the second time and it was very important for them, because then the first important Roma music festival took place in India, and it was held in the city of Chandigarh. There they received the title "King and Queen of Roma Music".

Their last trip to India was in 1983, when Esma had the opportunity to sing in front of the Prime Minister of India - Indira Gandhi, with whom she remained in contact until her death. She also sang in front of Josip Broz Tito and other celebrities.

A circle of Roma musicians was created around Esma and Stevo over time, among whom the most famous were Muharem Serbezovski and Usnija Redzepova.

This "queen of Roma music" performed all over the world, visiting India, Australia, Mexico, Canada and the Soviet Union. She was the first Yugoslav artist to perform at the famous Olympia Concert Hall in Paris in 1962.

She also performed at the Moscow Theater in 2000, where she was named Roma Singer of the Century. She has also performed at the Ronacher Theater in Vienna, at the Frankfurt and Cologne Operas, and at the Sydney Cultural Summer in front of more than 300.000 people in 2010.

She also represented Macedonia at Eurovision in 2013.

Besides singing in Romani, Esma sang in more than 10 different languages, and her career lasted almost 60 years, with over 22.000 performances.

He released more than 580 songs, including two platinum and eight gold records. He has given more than 8.000 concerts in over 30 different countries.

She died after a serious illness on December 11, 2016, and was buried in the Butel Cemetery in Skopje.

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