Accordionist Sinisa Dzavic Dies at 67 in Badovinci
Accordionist Sinisa Dzavic died on Monday in his native Badovinci at 67, after nearly two years fighting lung cancer. The funeral is scheduled for today at noon.
Sinisa Dzavic, one of the most respected accordionists in Serbian folk music, died on Monday, September 14, in his native Badovinci, near Bogatic in the Macva region. He was 67. The funeral is scheduled for today, September 15, at noon, at the cemetery in Badovinci.
The news was announced by his longtime friend, journalist Mihael Babic, in a Facebook post carried by Nova.rs. Babic and Dzavic had known each other for three decades, going back to when Babic worked as a journalist in Australia.
“I knew Sinisa for a full 30 years, we did an interview for Frankfurter Vesti back in 2001,” Babic wrote.
Nearly two years fighting illness
Dzavic had spent his last 17 years living and working in Australia, on the Gold Coast. He arrived in Serbia on August 18 and was due to fly back to Australia in mid-September. Instead, the illness proved stronger.
“Since October 2024 he had waged a quiet, lion-hearted battle with stage four small-cell lung cancer,” Babic wrote in the post.
The illness, then, lasted almost two years. Although he spent his final months fighting the most advanced stage of the cancer, Babic says Dzavic remained dignified to the end.
“Sinisa left us in his native Serbia, where he had been staying since August 18,” the post reads.
Singer Aleksandar Aca Ilic, who moved to Australia with Dzavic in 1986 and remained his friend ever since, was among the first to react to the news of his death.
“I don’t like posts like this, but this time I have to. Sinisa Dzavic has died. A man of good soul, a respected and admired musician,” Ilic wrote on Facebook, alongside a photo with Dzavic taken two years ago in Brisbane.
Played alongside Tozovac and Lepa Lukic
Dzavic built his career as the lead accordionist in Zarko Josipovic Skula’s orchestra, with which he performed around the world for decades. On tour he accompanied some of the biggest names in Serbian folk music, among them Predrag Zivkovic Tozovac and Lepa Lukic. He also had a long collaboration with Milos Bojanic and Mitar Miric.
His standing in the world of the accordion is reflected in a detail from 2010, when the Italian accordion maker Settimio Soprani filmed a promotional video for its Artist VI model with Dzavic, shot on location in Australia.
He never severed his ties to his home region. In May this year, only months before his death, he released a song called “Macvansko slatko,” recorded together with Sinisa Tufegdzic.
In music industry circles he was known by the nickname “maestro.” Beyond performing live, he was also highly regarded as a studio musician, composer and arranger.
A friendship spanning decades
In his farewell post, Babic also recalled the private side of his friend. He says that whenever Dzavic came to Melbourne, he never stayed in a hotel or motel, but at his place instead. After a show, the two friends would often play accordion together until four in the morning, Dzavic on his Settimio Soprani, Babic on a Scandalli Super VI, just for themselves, with no audience.
Babic said goodbye to his friend with words he describes as his final farewell.
“May you have eternal glory, and thank you, my dear Sinisa. Your accordion will echo forever,” Babic wrote.
Sinisa Dzavic will be remembered as a musician who, despite 17 years spent living on the other side of the world, stayed true to the sound of the Macva region he came from. The funeral takes place today at noon in Badovinci, where his family, friends and admirers of his music will bid him farewell.
