by Tucker Koch, Contributing Writer
I could make many articles about the collapse of Yugoslavia and its surrounding conflicts in the early 1990s. The situation was so chaotic that I could probably write ten articles about it and still have more to say. As such, I am narrowing my focus to one song that came out of the Bosnian War; that song is Bosanska Artiljerija (Don’t worry, I have trouble pronouncing it too), which translates to Bosnian Artillery.
Now, just a disclaimer: not much about this song is well documented in English besides the lyrics; therefore, I’m going to try, to the best of my knowledge, to explain it. If I get something wrong or forget something, feel free to post it in the comment section below, because I would rather correct myself than share false information. With all that out of the way, let’s actually get into the article proper now.
Ok, I do know the historical background. Let’s talk about the state of the Bosnian War at the time of this song’s creation. So, everybody in the Balkan Peninsula hates each other. This is a fact that has pretty much existed for a millennium by now. As such, it was inevitable that Yugoslavia, the nation designed to unite the Balkans under one nation, was a terrible idea from the start, and it is shocking that it lasted as long as it did. As communism faltered and fell during the 1980s and 90s, so too did the communist nation of Yugoslavia. This was a bloody and chaotic war, with fighting occurring everywhere. The United Nations technically brought this to an end by establishing the nations of Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia. Now, in the Balkans, this did not stop the fighting at all, and Serbia immediately re-entered Bosnia to reclaim its former territory. Bosnia was not fazed by this, and one Bosnian musician wrote an entire song solely to motivate the army at the start of the war.
Before I walk through the song, I recommend you listen to it first, so I don’t overanalyze it. It is a banger of a song, and multiple people have uploaded it for free on stuff like YouTube, SoundCloud, and Spotify. I highly recommend you give it a listen.
The first verse basically says that the people of Bosnia, to whom the song refers, are proud of their nation and will not back down easily. The lyrics may seem like generic war slogans, but they effectively convey the message. The song then kicks into a pre-verse (I don’t know song terms well; it’s the pseudo-repeated part right before the chorus kicks off), where they start listing various cities in Bosnia and comment that they appreciate their help and that they’re a joy to fight alongside. This part is good for uniting your troops around a common cause and getting them to like each other enough to shoot the enemy. And then we get into the chorus… hoo boy, the chorus. The chorus exclaims, ‘Artillery,’ before acknowledging that the soldiers firing it are drunkards and once again singing praise to the nation of Bosnia. This section, in my opinion, aims to demonstrate that fighting alongside your fellow countrymen can make war enjoyable. However, it comes across, at least to me, as a really silly line that turns this song from a great war song to a great song to pull out for a gag or two. The last verse and pre-chorus are essentially the same schtick before just repeating the chorus again.
I know there wasn’t really much to talk about since I focused on one song in particular, but I just wanted to yap about it. I hope you found this article at least a little entertaining. This has been Tucker Koch.
