Rambo Amadeus

Antonije Pušić (born 14 June 1963), known professionally as Rambo Amadeus is a Montenegrin and Serbian author and performer.

A self-titled "musician, poet, and media manipulator", he is a noted artist across the countries of former Yugoslavia.

Between 1972 and 1984, he represented Yugoslavia in numerous international regattas.

In 1979, Rambo Amadeus started off in a band called "Radioaktivni otpad," which was short lived.

He was also in a band called "The Blues Band."

He didn't like the content produced, so he rearranged the setup.

The band lasted throughout his high school years, playing in Herceg Novi, Nikšić and Igalo (5 km distance from Herceg Novi).

During this period he was the Montenegrin champion several times, an 8-time South-Adriatic champion, national title winner in the junior category, as well as International Đerdap Cup winner in 1980.

He still occasionally attends and participates in some recreational sailing regattas in the Gulf of Kotor.

He began to sing and compose during his first year of high school (gymnasium) which soon led to involvement with various local bands in Herceg Novi and Titograd.

One of his first performances saw him play the mandolin in an orchestra entertaining guests at Herceg Novi's Plaza hotel.

In 1985, he moved to Belgrade in pursuit of higher education.

Parallel to his university studies, he also played with various amateur bands and musicians.

In 1988, he dropped into the music scene out of nowhere with his debut album O tugo jesenja. His sound was a seemingly coarse blend of folkish ululations and opera, further mixed in with humorous lyrics and classic guitar riffs.

Since very few people had prior knowledge of him, Rambo was delighted in creating confusion by introducing himself as Nagib Fazlić Nagon, a mine shaft operator who saved up enough money to record an album.

His next album Hoćemo gusle was released in 1989 and gave a small taste of Rambo's future musical direction – overt political satire.

The track "Amerika i Engleska (biće zemlja proleterska)" was originally supposed to be named "Kataklizma komunizma" (Cataclysm of Communism) but local authorities did not allow it.

The album title pokes fun at a bizarre event from the 1989 protests in Montenegro that eventually grew into the anti-bureaucratic revolution that swept Milo Đukanović, Momir Bulatović, and Svetozar Marović into power.

Protesters were heard chanting "Hoćemo Ruse" ("We want the Russians"), but when the authorities and state-controlled media criticized them for it, many quickly began backpedaling by claiming they actually chanted "Hoćemo gusle" ("We want gusle").

Other songs like "Glupi hit" and the aforementioned "Balkan boy" would also become considerable hits.

Rambo even received solid critical acclaim for chances he took in "Samit u buregdžinici Laibach".

On that track, he created a catchy hybrid by mixing the unique sound of Laibach with lyrics borrowed from the poetry of Laza Kostić and Desanka Maksimović, as well as from folk kafana standard "Čaše lomim" mixing with his own humorous lyrics.

The album sleeve lists the lyrics of a song that wasn't actually recorded, and explains that "it was dropped at the last moment because there was no room for it," but gives assurances that it would appear on the next album.

Since the song in question, named "Pegepe ertebe," was all about taking shots at Rambo's label PGP RTB, but however, it didn't appear on the next or any other album.

He also jokingly referred to his own musical style as turbo folk, long before this term would begin to be applied to an actual musical style, which critics refer to with a grave social connotation and came to symbolise the moral and cultural decline throughout the Balkans during the wars of the 1990s.

Producer Saša Habić gave Rambo the opportunity to sign for the state television's record company PGP RTB (Rambo later wrote an anecdotal tribute to that event, in the hit song "Balkan Boy").

Habić also played the synthesiser on this album, from which a track named "Vanzemaljac" (Extraterrestrial) continues to be popular to this day.

The record's sales weren't particularly high, but Rambo created enough of a buzz to remain active on the scene.

In the early 1990s, Rambo was growing into an established performer.

His songs combine satirical lyrics on human nature and the silliness of local politics with a mixture of musical styles including jazz, rock, hip-hop and lately drum and bass, and self-conscious ironic wit; for example, his most popular alias is "Rambo Amadeus Svjetski Kilo Car" ("Rambo Amadeus the World Kilo Tzar"), formerly "Rambo Amadeus Svjetski Mega Car" ("Rambo Amadeus the World Mega Tzar") (RASMC) (changed in 2012 because of his belief in the importance of modesty in an environmentally conscious society).

His stage name itself is made from John Rambo and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

His concerts are never mere repetitions of recorded songs, but a mixture of free improvisation and satirical humor exploiting all aspects of human nature in a crude manner.

Some fans compare his style with Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart.

Rambo Amadeus represented Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan, with the song "Euro Neuro".

Antonije Pušić was born in Kotor, SR Montenegro, SFR Yugoslavia though his family lived in nearby Herceg Novi where he was raised.

His writer and painter mother Bosiljka was born in Ćuprija and raised in Jagodina, Serbia before meeting Ilija Pušić from the coastal village of Kumbor near Herceg Novi and moving there upon marrying him.

The couple soon moved to Herceg Novi proper and started a family.

After completing elementary and secondary education in his hometown, Antonije graduated in tourism studies from the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.

He also completed six grades of elementary music school for piano before dropping out.

Before pursuing music and performing arts as a career choice, Pušić was an accomplished competitive sailor.