Baja Mali Knindža

Mirko Pajčin (Serbian Cyrillic: Мирко Пајчин; born 13 October 1966), known by his stage name Baja Mali Knindža (Serbian Cyrillic: Баја Мали Книнџа; English: Baja Little Kninja), is a Serbian folk singer and songwriter. He is often described as part of the turbo-folk scene, and is known for his Serbian patriotic songs. His cousin was the pop-folk recording artist Ksenija Pajčin.

Baja Mali Knindža
Born
Mirko Pajčin

(1966-10-13) 13 October 1966
Gubin, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia
OccupationSerbian folk singer
Years active1989–present
Height1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Children6
Musical career
Genres
InstrumentsVocals

Pajčin is not to be mistaken with Nedeljko Bajić Baja (to whom he owes his nickname due to their physical resemblance), who is another Bosnian Serb folk singer.

Early life

Pajčin[1] was born on 13 October 1966 into a Bosnian Serb family in the village of Gubin, near Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Pajčin moved to SR Serbia in 1980, and began singing in 1984 in Surčin.[2]

Controversy and career

Baja won a 1989 competition for amateur singers in Livno and released his first album in 1991. His career began just as Yugoslavia was breaking up. Throughout the 1990s, he was known for his strong Serbian nationalism and nationalist songs supporting the Serbs during the Yugoslav wars; during the Croatian War of Independence he was dubbed Baja Mali-Knindža (literally meaning "Baja little Kninja" in reference to the de facto capital, Knin, of the Serbian ethnic breakaway state of Serbian Krajina within Croatia and its armed force).[3][4] His first professional success was the song "Врати се Војводо" (Come Back, Voivode), in which he appealed to Serbian World War II Chetnik commander Momčilo Đujić to come back to the areas of the Croatian Krajina and help lift the spirits of the Croatian Serbs. He said that he would never consider going to Croatia as he claimed that Croatian soldiers "burned down his house and desecrated his ancestors' graves".

Baja performs at "Кочићев збор" (Kočić's Assembly) in Zmijanje near Banja Luka in mid-August every year, and he usually attracts tens of thousands of people. Since Operation Storm, Pajčin has written many songs about his dream of the Serb people returning to live in territories now inhabited by Croats following the Croatian War for Independence.

Pajčin is controversial due to his Serbian nationalism and Serbian far-right views and bias in lyrics.[5] Most of his songs are condemned in non-Serb parts of Bosnia and Croatia because of their xenophobic lyrics, which often reference war leaders during the Yugoslav wars. For example, his song "Ne volim te Alija" describes his strong dislike for the Bosnian wartime president Alija Izetbegović and includes the lyrics:

Не волим те, Алија, / I don't like you, Alija
Зато што си балија / Because you are a Balija (a derogatory term for Bosniaks)
Срушио си миран сан / You destroyed a peaceful dream
Носила ти Дрина сто муџахедина / May the river Drina take hundreds of your mujahideen
Сваки дан / Every day [6]

In one song titled "Ćuti, Ćuti Ujko!" (the song and music video feature Serbian rock star Bora Đorđević, "I will kill you" as well as "Shut up, shut up, mujo (Bosnian Muslim), I will kill you". He has also sung "I don't like people who like the HDZ", which included the lyrics "Fuck their šahovnica".

Despite many of his songs having a nationalistic lyrical theme, he is also known for his often humorous non-political songs such as "Umri Baba" and "Poker Aparat".

He has also sung anti-communist songs such as "Bila Jednom Jedna Zemlja" and the song "Komunjare", which says:

Комуњаре, комуњаре / Commies, commies
ви волите само паре / All that you love is money
сви сте ви комунисти / All of you communists
прављени на калуп исти / Are cast in the same mould [7]

Personal life

Pajačin lives with his wife, three daughters and a son in Zemun. Besides his native language, he also speaks English and Russian. His mother and father live in a newly built house in Surčin.

Baja is a supporter of the Serbian Radical Party, and has sung at the party's conventions. He also released an album, Српским радикалима (Serbian Radicals, 1998), which glorifies the SRS and its leader Vojislav Šešelj.

His cousin Ksenija Pajčin, pop-folk recording artist, was murdered by her ex-boyfriend on March 16, 2010.[8][9] Later that same year Pajačin released the song "Spavaj, kraljice" (Sleep, Queen) in her memory.[10] He said that he was very "shaken" by her death.

Discography

Solo
  • Ne dam Krajine (1991)
  • Stan'te paše i Ustaše (1992)
  • Živjeće ovaj narod (1993)
  • Sve za srpstvo, srpstvo nizašta (1993)
  • Uživo sa braćom Bajić, Rašom Pavlovićem, i Goricom Ilić (1993)
  • Još se ništa ne zna (1994)
  • Rat i mir (1994)
  • Kockar bez sreće (1994)
  • Pobijediće istina (1994)
  • Igraju se delije (1995)
  • Idemo dalje (1995)
  • Zbogom oružje (1996)
  • Ne dirajte njega (1997)
  • Povratak u budućnost (1998)
  • Srpskim radikalima (1998)
  • Biti il ne biti (1999)
  • Život je tamo (1999)
  • Zaljubljen i mlad (2000)
  • Đe si legendo (2001)
  • Zbogom pameti (2002)
  • Baja Mali Knindža: uživo (2003)
  • Luda Žurka - uživo (2003)
  • Za kim zvona zvone (2006)
  • Gluvi barut (2007)
  • Idemo malena (2011)
  • Lesi se vraća kući (2012)
  • Govor duše (2014)

With Braća sa Dinare band
  • Goki i Baja bend (1994)
  • Bila jednom jedna zemlja (1995)
  • Plači voljena zemljo (1996)
  • Ja se svoga, ne odričem groba (1997)
  • Idemo do kraja (1998)
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References
  1. "Istinski identitet poznatih ličnosti rijetko poznat javnosti". Nezavisne. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
  2. "Biografija Baje Malog Kninže (Mirko Pajčin)". Archived from the original on 2018-04-26. Retrieved 2017-04-20.
  3. "Dvostruka mjerila: 'Mali Knindža' slavi četnike u Švicarskoj". Slobodna Dalmacija. 7 October 2009. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
  4. "Thompsona protjerali, a Malom Knindži daju da propagira četnike". Jutarnji. 7 October 2009. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
  5. Radano, Ronald Michael; Bohlman, Philip Vilas (2000). Music and the racial imagination. University of Chicago Press. p. 639. ISBN 978-0-226-70200-1. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
  6. "Ne Volim Te Alija video with English subtitles".
  7. "Komunjare video with English subtitles".
  8. "Plačem za sestrom Ksenijom". Kurir. 27 December 2010. Archived from the original on 22 January 2015. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
  9. "Baja Mali Knindža posvetio pesmu Kseniji Pajčin". Svet. 27 December 2010. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
  10. "Baja Mali Knindža posvetio pesmu svojoj pokojnoj sestri Kseniji Pajčin". Press. 16 March 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
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