Magnificent, spectacular, epoch-making – this is how the first Belgrade River Fest, held in Belgrade Waterfront, on the plateau behind the Geozavod on Friday and Saturday, July 22 and 23, could be described in short. The protagonists were the famous Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and the world-renowned fado diva Mariza.
The new summer festival in Belgrade’s cultural offer brought to the Sava riverbank an amazing musical rhapsody that has not been seen in our capital for a long time. There is no doubt that the two warm July nights will forever remain in the fond memories of several thousand visitors to the first Belgrade River Fest.
Andrea Bocelli’s name is well-known on all meridians, and his powerful, penetrating, melancholic and impressive voice, which conveys all the emotions of the romantic Tuscany from which he came, captured the whole world. Therefore, it is not surprising that once again he completely charmed the Belgrade audience who greeted cult songs with thunderous applause, such as O sole mio, Voglio vivere cosi, Granada, or the one without no performance of the “angelic voice” artist can go – Con te partirò.
The special guest of the first day of the festival was Jelena Tomašević, a famous Serbian pop singer of with a gorgeous voice, who first sang the song Gde si bilo, jare moje, and then she was given the great and rare privilege of singing two duets with the famous tenor. Their joint performance of the compositions Vivo per lei and Canto della terra caused great enthusiasm in the audience. After the unmissable encore, at the end of the first evening, several minutes of fireworks followed in the sky above the specially constructed concert hall on the plateau behind the Geozavod. Although he last performed in Belgrade nine years ago, the open-air concert by the river showed that there is still a mutual and intimate connection between Bocelli and the Belgrade audience.
On the second day of festival, planet renowned music artist Mariza has performed. Like six previous times, that she has performed in Serbian capital, Portuguese diva has one more time enlighted numerous admirers of her music, gathered under the clear sky in vicinity of Sava Promenada.
Mariza reminded the visitors of Belgrade River Fest of her well-known hits, such as Lagrima and Meu fado, and introduced them to the completely enchanting world of fado with “the music of soul”. The Serbian audience, mesmerized by the rhythms of the traditional music of Portugal, has a special affection and respect for Mariza since 2014, when she participated in a humanitarian concert to help the flooded areas in our country, and greeted each of her big hits wholeheartedly and with lots of love.