Yugoslavia’s attachment to the USSR ended in 1948, when Tito said “no” to Stalin, refusing his invitation to come to Moscow. Overnight, all Russian films and music were banned in Yugoslavia, which created another problem—what direction should the film and music industry now take?
Gradually, Mexican films and music inspired by Latin American sounds became popular among Yugoslav audiences. This was helped by the fact that Mexican cinema at the time was vivid and rich, often infused with revolutionary themes—something close to the Yugoslav peoples who had recently emerged from World War II. These films portrayed poor but honest Mexicans fighting against villains.
In 1950, the film “One Day of Life” (Un día de vida) was made in Mexico. After only a week of screenings worldwide, it was pulled from theaters and soon fell into obscurity… everywhere except Yugoslavia, where it achieved incredible popularity. In Zagreb alone, the film was shown for a full 248 consecutive days to completely sold-out audiences!
The film tells the story of two friends, one of whom is sentenced to death by firing squad because he refused to shoot at the people. He asks his officer friend to grant him one more day of life so he can congratulate his mother, Juanita, on her birthday with a song. This scene, which many still remember today, is accompanied by the song “Las Mañanitas,” later adapted into two versions in our language. The first is “Mama Juanita,” and the second, “One Day of Life,” is best known in the version performed by Mišo Kovač.
This famous song and film had an enormous impact on popularizing Mexican music and culture in Yugoslavia and led to the creation of the so-called Yu-Mex musical genre. The most popular Yu-Mex performers included Cune Gojković, Ivo Robić, Ljubomir Milić and Paloma, the trio TiViDi, and many others, although the main stars were the Montenegrins Slavko Perović and Nikola Karović.
Karović was later noticed by Tito and became his personal entertainer. He performed for Tito 102 times, as well as for 61 world statesmen, which earned him a place in the Guinness Book of Records. He also sang at the reception for Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos.
His biggest “rival” was Slavko Perović, who released major hits in the 1960s such as “A Glass of Bitter Tears,” “Song for Mother,” “Beautiful Guadalajara,” “When You Hear the Trumpet,” “My Mexico,” and of course “Mama Juanita.”
Some of Perović’s records sold up to 300,000 copies—far more than the number of gramophones in Yugoslavia in the early 1960s!
