Klapa Baladur from Opatija achieved a double success at the jubilee 20th KUM Festival – Klape uz mandoline, held in Makarska. The Opatija klapa won the first audience award, the Golden Adriatic, and the first professional jury award, the Golden Sardine.
The song they performed, "Svitli u noć", earned its author Zoran Trubić the award for the festival's best new composition. Trubić is a klapa singer, although he is not a member of Klapa Baladur, and he is also the author of the group's first original song from 2022.
Baladur was founded in 2015, and its founder and creative director is Dijan Lakota, who sang in Klapa Mirakul before establishing Baladur. The klapa was formed from singers from four different groups. Although they have been performing at festivals for four or five years, the Makarska awards are their first.
The song "Svitli u noć" was originally intended for this year's Večeri dalmatinske pisme in Kaštela. They submitted two songs for Kaštela, and it was "Svitli u noć" that was selected. In Kaštela in July, the song "Lipa moja" was presented, which Baladur and Ibrica Jusić performed together. The song "Svitli u noć" remained in the drawer because it had not yet been recorded; they only had a demo recording. Now, a proper studio recording of "Svitli u noć" and a music video are to follow.
Baladur has been oriented towards instrumental klapa from the start. They had a rule that every new member wishing to join Baladur had to know how to play at least one instrument. Dijan Lakota is originally an accordionist and has played the accordion his whole life, but he had to start playing the mandolin as well. Among the members of Baladur, there are singers who have already performed at the Omiš Festival.
