27 years. 18 albums. Over 8 Million CD sales. Sell-out World Tours. Leading roles in several movies (with a new one on the way) and a Television program. Her own record label. Celebrating her 48th birthday in a couple of months. Several links to Eurovision. An autobiography penciled in for the New Year. A career of accomplishments and talent often clouded by controversy, including her most controversial; marriage to a Serbian tennis player (she being of Bosnian Muslim background) during the height of the Yugoslav war.

Many people have referred to Ex-Yugoslavia’s Lepa Brena as the Balkans answer to Madonna. And whilst there is no denying this is the truth, Brena has been a pop star since 1981, with Madonna’s arrival onto the pop music scene erupting one year shy in 1982. As a child, I grew up with the songs of two female recording artists; Madonna and Lepa Brena. My family, of Bosnian background, were big fans of the Europopstar, and my infatuation with the women of song as years went by was all thanks to those two women, and the family members who played their music for me.

It has been eight years since Brena’s last album, 2000’s “Pomracenje Sunca” was released, and over these last few years there has been much speculation as to what the stars next move would be. It’s been such a huge disappointment to see such a gap in between releases from her of late; according to the singer her inspiration to sing is not as strong as it was when her country was unified, not torn by war. But, after working so hard for so many years, maybe she’s allowed to take such long breaks? Between 1982 and 1986, Brena released a full length album every year. In 1987, she managed to release two (!!) of them, and a feature film in which she played, surprise surprise, herself. The movie, called “Hajde Da Se Volimo” (translation: “Let’s Love”) centered around Brena being, well, Brena; a massive pop star, who spends the majority of the movie running away from kidnapping scenarios, sugared up by a very frequent burst into song. It was magical stuff, especially as a child. So magical, there have been follow ups to the film: Let’s Love 2 and 3, with Part 4 rumoured for release next year.

So after eight years, Lepa Brena’s newest record has finally dropped. “Udji Slobodno” is an emotional, powerful and dramatic effort dealing with the issues of love, life and loss; all from a woman better known for her light hearted pop songs about tight pants, discotheque’s, coca-cola and going to the cinema. I’m not kidding. Nonetheless, whether it be a ballad or a pop song about a chicken laying eggs (again, I’m not kidding,) the songs of Brena’s past are true classics, and the 10 tracks on “Udji Slobodno” sit quite comfortably with the brilliance of those. You can buy the album (with bonus poster!) from Yu4You.com here.

Here are my three favourite tracks (and the poppiest) from the new album; “Dobra Gresnica (Excellent Sinner)” “Kuca Lazi (House Of Lies)” and “Zasto (Why).” There’s even MORE Brena goodness if you scroll down past the album cover art…

DOBRA GRESNICA http://www.zshare.net/download/14860793e7b64d5d/

KUCA LAZI http://www.zshare.net/download/148612782a5c5d46/

ZASTO http://www.zshare.net/download/14861474d9f075fe/

Whilst it’s hard to narrow done which of her classics are truly the best, here is a small handful available in MP3 format for you. They each come highly recommended. Please note; some of them aren’t CD quality because they’ve either been ripped from the original vinyl or cassette.

MACE MOJE (1985) http://www.zshare.net/download/1486097370b5c665/

PERICE MOJE MERICE (1985) http://www.zshare.net/audio/14861617624b7338/

SANJAM (1987) http://www.zshare.net/download/148618448b0ff28b/

For those of you interested in hearing more Brena stuff in MP3 format, email me and I’ll sort you out. Almost all of her back catalogue is virtually impossible to purchase these days, aside from a few shoddily put together best of collections and her ‘re-recorded’ greatest hits from 2004. And just for the record, her best records are as follows: 1985’s “Seik” – 1986’s “Voli Me Voli” and 1987’s soundtrack to the movie “Hajde Da Se Volimo.”

Still interested? Here’s some YouTube loving.

The greatest video clip of all time. “Sanjam,” from her first feature film. What’s going on in it? Who cares!

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“Luda Za Tobom” from 1996. Incredible stuff.

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The French version of her hit “Okraces Mi Ledja.” I was so obsessed with this particular version as a child that I wore out the video cassette it came on. Thank god for YouTube.

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This one is called “Seik” which – to this day – is probably my favourite song of Brena’s ever recorded. There is family video footage of me emulating the video clip as a 3 year old with my grandmother in a park. And by ‘emulating,’ I mean I was beating her (lightly) over the head with a tree branch whilst singing the chorus. MP3 here.

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For the first few years of her career, Brena wanted to be Agnetha from ABBA. Here she is in 2003 doing an ABBA medley with some of her fellow euro-pop stars on 2003’s “The Lepa Brena Show.” English As A Seventh Language Alert.

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This is “Robinja,” and the clip is a scene taken from the “Hajde Da Se Volimo” sequel, “Hajde Da Se Volimo 2″ from 1989.

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Tight Pants! Oooh Oooh (Kiss Kiss Kiss!) “Uske Pantalone” from 1987.

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“Sitnije Cile Sitnije,” her potential Eurovision entry. It didn’t make it through the final selection, but DID go on to outsell the chosen entry. Go figure.

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“Mace Moje” completely mimed to the original version from 1987 on television in 2004. Incredible. Thing is; on the ex-Yugoslav type Top Of The Pops shows, NO ONE sings live, it’s all mimed. I guess we’re lucky they’re even transmitting I suppose. There’s a snippet of the original clip from ‘87 which you can see here.

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“Janos” performed in 2006 on Pink TV in Serbia.

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To your right is a photograph of the mighty Ruslana, who won the Eurovision Song Contest for the Ukraine a couple of years back. Sadly, there is NO Ruslana at this years comp which means there will be NO crazy outfits made of roadkill, and NO large sticks being bung about on stage. So, aside from the disappointing lack of the ‘lana, I’m embracing the fact that this years Eurovision is only a few days away. So I finally took the time to listen through each of the 42 entries today, in order to select my pre-show favourites. Out of all those songs, only 14 of them sparked any interest to my ears. Pretty unimpressive contest by the sounds of it, sadly. Anyways, out of the 14 songs I quite enjoyed, these are the 10 I would vote for were I judge on the evening…

12 POINTS
FYR MACEDONIA
Karolina Gocheava – Mojot Svet
Out of all the non-English songs sung in this years contest, there are 6 (Bosnian, Croation, Slovanian, Serbian, Montenegro, Macedonian) that I can fluently understand. Out of those six, only one of them comes close to being brilliant. And what a song it is. VERY big chorus, really strong nay-na-nay-na’s, great verses and a very pretty girl with a good voice fronting it. I’m going to be mighty angry if she performs the English version of this on the night though, which is – sadly – more likely to happen. Pity, I really thought Carola’s English performance of her entry last year spoilt the songs original beauty… It’s a European song contest so I firmly believe they should sing in their native tongue. This is SUCH a touching song in its Macedonian version, but the English version is terribly boring: “Music knows no queen or colour, day by day, we live our dream”. Aside from the lyrics being quite tired, they are COMPLETELY different to what the original offers. I have a feeling I’m going to be very disappointed come Sunday.

10 POINTS
DENMARK
DQ – Drama Queen
Arguably, Dana International was the first Drag Queen/Transesxual/Et Cetera to perform in the Eurovision Song Contest. Her song “Diva” was fabulous, and following in that tradition, Denmark’s DQ’s song and dance about being a Drama Queen is just as special. What’s not to love about this song? Feathers, elaborate dancers, feathers, feathers, feathers, and a momentous key change. It’s the Kylie Showgirl Tour crammed into 3 minutes and 5 seconds.

08 POINTS
RUSSIA
Serebro – Song No. 1
The CFBGoesPop Girls LOVE this, and with very good reason. That chorus is smoking hot! They say “bitches”, and call their Fifi-Box a “cherry pie”. Sweet! And THAT breakdown… how very Janet “Nasty-Boys”!

07 POINTS
GREECE
Sarbel – Yassou Maria
This song is incredibly confusing. It starts off incredibly Greek, turns into something by Panic! At The Disco, then into a Ricky Martin song, before slamming itself into a bit of Hellogoodbye. All before the first chorus which takes things back to Greece. Fucking crazy.

06 POINTS
UKRAINE
Verka Serduchka – Dancing Lasha Tumbai
Bonkers. ABSOLUTELY BONKERS. It reminds me of the kind of thing Patsy Stone might dream about after a night on the town. Secretly, I want this to win win win.

05 POINTS
BELARUS
Dima Koldun – Work Your Magic
The clip does this gorgeous boy no favours. But the amazing Londonboy and his tremendous blog DO. HIM. QUITE. A. FEW. Songs not bad either.

04 POINTS
ANDORRA
Anonymous – Let’s Save The World
Good looking emo boys at Eurovision. This trend has officially gone from ‘fashion statement’ to ‘epidemic’. It’s like a watered down James Bourne, which possibly speaks volumes. In fact, this song isn’t terribly good at all, but considering the caliber of the REMAINING songs in the competition……. Actually, I’m beginning to hate this.

03 POINTS
ESTONIA
Gerli Padar – Partners In Crime
I love it when 50 year old women try their best not to look like 50 year old women by rocking it out on stage. Madonna’s not 50 yet smart arses.

02 POINTS
UNITED KINGDOM
Scooch – Flying The Flag
For Christ’s sake, surely Gina G was not busy?. I cannot stand this, what a fucking piece of shit. Yet I have listened to it no less than 20 times in the past week. That said, come back Javine!! All is forgiven.

01 POINT
FRANCE
Les Fatals Picards – L’amour A La Francaise
We may as well pack up and leave now.

Things might change on the actual night (considering some of the songs haven’t even made it past the semi-finals yet), but not by much.