Andrija Bajic's Daughter: It Was One Beautiful Life

Milica Bajic Geric, daughter of singer Andrija Bajic, posted a farewell message on her Facebook page on July 15, the day before her father’s funeral. There was not a word about grief in it. “It was one beautiful life,” she wrote.

The message is short and goes straight to the point. “And please, do not offer me condolences. Give me a song, let Sumadija ring with it, let it remember what it once was, and what it will never be again. May the eternal Kingdom of Heaven be yours, my dear father,” her post reads. Instead of the usual column of condolences under a status, she asked for verses and memories.

She also published a longer piece titled “Because of You, Dad,” addressed to her father and to what stays with a daughter when a father was present. The reactions came fast, and the comments kept filling up through the day.

Andrija Bajic died on July 7 at the age of 88. According to reports, the cause was complications from a stroke, after a lengthy period of treatment at the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade. He had suffered the stroke a few weeks earlier and briefly recovered, before his condition deteriorated sharply. He is survived by his wife, singer Mala Cana, and his daughters.

Who is the man being buried at the Alley

Bajic was born in the village of Jabucje near Lajkovac, into a poor family of day labourers. With his brother Tomislav he formed the duo Braca Bajic, one of the most recognisable names in traditional folk music across the former Yugoslavia. Over half a century they released 43 singles and 28 albums, with sales running into the millions.

In time, their songs stopped being “theirs” in the public mind. “Nad izvorom vrba se nadnela” and “Kolubarski vez” entered the folk repertoire so thoroughly that many still assume they are anonymous traditional songs. That is probably the highest compliment an author in this genre can receive, and also the reason he is being buried on Thursday at the Alley of Distinguished Citizens at the New Cemetery.

What is going on inside the family

The farewell is not passing without the tension the press has tracked for days. At the commemoration held at the MTS Hall on July 10, both the singer’s daughters and his widow, Mala Cana, were present. According to reports, Mala Cana was among the first to arrive at the venue. The daughters sat in the front rows with their children, watching family photographs cycle across the video screens.

The friction between the widow and the daughters is not new. Mala Cana had previously said publicly that she wanted to meet Bajic’s daughters, and claimed she had been met with hostility. All of that has trailed the days before the funeral, and a good part of the public is now more interested in the family dynamics than in the songs he left behind.

Milica’s post does not touch any of it. No mention of a scandal, a conflict, or anyone involved. She writes only about her father, and asks for a song. In a showbusiness world where every clash gets stretched into a week of headlines, that is an unusual move.

The funeral is scheduled for Thursday, July 16.

Do you think Milica found the best possible answer to everything written about her family in recent days?