Brena on Viktor: 'We no longer have a mother-and-son relationship'
Lepa Brena told nportal.novosti.rs that for the past two years her son Viktor has been the main producer of her projects, and that their working relationship is no longer a family one.
In an interview published April 29 by nportal.novosti.rs, Lepa Brena said that she and her son Viktor no longer have “a mother-and-son relationship” when it comes to their professional collaboration, because for the past two years he has been the main responsible producer for all her projects. The singer stressed that the shift in how they communicate followed her own decision to delegate decisions she had been making alone for 43 years.
In the same interview, Brena recalled 1993 and the death of her longtime manager Raka Djokic as the pivotal moment after which she took the management side of her career into her own hands. Viktor’s takeover of the production side, the singer says, is the product of a deliberate process rather than a snap decision.
The singer rang in the new year in Tivat, performing for a Montenegrin audience, while her husband Boba Zivojinovic was at a separate event, Telegraf reports. According to the article, the family was apart at that moment because of work commitments, but Brena underlines in multiple interviews that this does not change their private dynamic.
Speaking to Novosti magazine, Brena added that “life is hard and brutal, there are always problems”, and that after decades in the public eye she has learned to take crises as part of the job. In the same interview, she also mentioned her brother Faruk Jahic, who moved from Brcko to Belgrade and is building a music career of his own, while their sister Faketa lives in Canada.
Brena is planning her next projects for the autumn, with a new studio album and a regional tour in preparation. The dates, per an Instagram post from early May, will be announced over the summer.
Viktor Zivojinovic, born in 1986, began his business career in marketing and music production, and in recent years has taken a leading role in running Grand Production, the company in which Brena has been co-owner since the 1990s. As reported by Magazin Novosti and other outlets, Viktor is now also responsible for selecting producers on all new songs, as well as negotiating with concert promoters in Serbia and the region.
The singer’s status in the domestic music space, with an estimated 40 million records sold, has remained the commercial benchmark for performers from former Yugoslavia, per data on the English-language Wikipedia. According to the same interview with nportal.novosti.rs, Brena does not want to leave that position to chance, which is why she has fully delegated part of her business decisions to her son.
The singer announced that, once work on the new album is completed, she plans a break from live performances, which, as she put it, she “is entitled to after 43 years in the business”. The specific timing of the break, and whether it will also apply to concert appearances, will be announced when the album is released.
