Ava Selimi
A voice from the margins
Ava Selimi was a Roma singer active in former Yugoslavia, most likely in the 1960s and 1970s, connected to the music scene in Pristina (Kosovo). She was a young vocalist with a distinctive voice, performing music on the border of Roma folk and early Balkan pop.
Very little information about her life has survived. It is known that she recorded only one single and did not develop a wider career. According to accounts, she may have been rejected by her community for being an independent artist and not conforming to traditional expectations of women.
There are also suggestions that she left her home environment, and her later life remains unknown. Today, her recordings are rare and mostly appear on archival compilations of Roma music from Yugoslavia.
Ava appears on one of my favorite albums — “Stand Up, People: Pop Songs by Roma Gypsy Musicians from Tito’s Socialist Yugoslavia, 1960–1980” — in the track “Ah Bre Devla.” It’s one of those moments where the voice carries something deeply raw and personal.
Released by Asphalt Tango, the album is a collection of rare recordings by Roma artists from Yugoslavia spanning the 1960s to the 1980s, sonically ranging from folk and wedding melodies to influences of Bollywood, Turkish psychedelia, and Western pop-rock.
It’s music made by people stepping into modernity without abandoning memory - which is why it holds both dance and melancholy, and a certain kind of pride. Listen to “Ramajana” by Muharem Serbezovski, what are you feeling?
You should definitely reach for this record if you feel drawn to a “raw source.”
Ava Selimi’s story shows how many talented artists disappeared due to social pressure and how easily culture can lose unique voices before they have a chance to be fully heard.