Zvornik Paid Jelena Rozga 52,807 Marks for a Two Hour Show

The city of Zvornik paid Jelena Rozga 52,807 convertible marks, roughly 25,000 euros, from its budget for a two hour performance at the opening of Zvornik Summer. The figure did not become public until August 7, five days after the concert, and within a day it shifted the conversation from the festival’s best attended night to how much a city on the Drina can spend on a single name.

The concert took place on August 2 at Zvornik’s city beach. Mayor Bojan Ivanovic opened the event, fireworks preceded the concert, and it was the Croatian singer’s first performance in the city. Organizers estimated the crowd at around 15,000 people, while the local outlet Zvornik danas put the turnout in the thousands. The evening opened a seven day program.

Where the figure came from

The city did not release the number. It came from the Facebook page “Objektivno iz Zvornika,” posted alongside footage from the concert. The caption under that clip included a comparison that set off the debate.

Jelena Rozga’s hourly rate for the performance was around 25,000 KM. For roughly two hours of singing, she collected 52,807 KM. For comparison, that is around 60 to 70 percent of what the City of Zvornik spends annually on all combat sports clubs combined. We have to agree that this is a high amount, especially given the financial situation and the hardship of residents who can barely make ends meet.

The comparison to combat sports clubs is what struck a nerve. Zvornik has an active sports scene in exactly those disciplines, and the page claims that one evening of singing cost close to two thirds of a full year’s funding for all of those clubs.

How much is 52,807 marks for one city?

For a regional star’s fee at a major summer festival, the amount is not unusual. The issue is that it comes from the municipal budget rather than a sponsor or a private promoter, so every mark gets compared to something else drawn from the same account. Once the price of a single show is converted into an hourly rate, the math residents worked out on their own comes to roughly 25,000 marks per hour.

The city has not published an official breakdown of the cost, nor has it said what the other acts on the program were paid.

A complaint that has nothing to do with money

Alongside the fee, some Zvornik residents also criticized the singer for what they describe as failing to shake hands with the mayor when he approached her before she went on stage. That moment ended up on the same Facebook page and on Instagram, where it drew several hundred comments.

“She didn’t refuse the money though,” reads one of the comments under the post. Instagram also carried word that one political party had called an emergency session of the City Board over the gesture.

The concert itself was briefly interrupted for a reason unrelated to the dispute. At the audience’s request from in front of the stage, Rozga used the PA system to call out for a girl named Nikolina, who she had been told was lost. The girl responded and said she would rejoin her friends shortly.

The rest of the program still has no price

Zvornik Summer did not end that night. The following evening, August 3 at 9 p.m., the band Rock k’o fol performed at the same beach, and the rest of the seven day program still has:

• Stoja
• Natasa Bekvalac
• JU grupa

No fee has been disclosed for any of those names. If the debate over Rozga’s 52,807 marks keeps going, the next question for city hall will be how much went to the rest of the lineup, since the same budget is being spent through the end of the week. So far, no official document listing performance fees has come out of city hall, so the entire calculation still rests on a figure from one Facebook page.

What is certain is that the milestone 25th edition of the festival drew the best attended concert night in its history, and that the night’s price tag became a bigger story than the concert itself five days later.