"Being a part of this scene is already a political act." The longtime DJ discusses politics in dance music and Ex-Yugoslavia's dynamic anti-establishment creative culture.
Tijana Todorovic (AKA Tijana T) proudly hails from the Ex-Yugoslavian capital Belgrade. The Serbian city, alongside the territories now known as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia, were once under singular socialist rule that Tijana describes as a "utopian time" that fostered intense creativity and counter-cultural art and music. A liberal communist republic that didn't operate under the influence of the USSR, as many Eastern European countries did at that time, Yugoslavia gave birth to a dynamic, anti-establishment performance culture rooted in new wave, feminism and everything non-mainstream.
In her RA Exchange with senior producer Chloe Lula, Tijana reflects on how growing up in this environment irrevocably shaped her values and taste in music, as well as how the civil war—and Yugoslavia's subsequent fall—defined the period of intense fear and poverty that followed. In Serbia, techno and nightclubs became an energetic force for young people seeking solace, community and sociopolitical change. Tijana went on to work as a TV and radio journalist that fought vehemently against the war, and to break out as an artist beyond the Ex-Yugoslavian territory. She talks about her unlikely trajectory, her view on the intrinsic connection between politics in dance music, underdeveloped music markets, sobriety and more. Listen to the episode in full.