Slavko Avsenik, Slovenian Folk-pop Legend, Celebrates 80th Birthday

Eighty accordionists played Slavko Avsenik’s megahit ‘Na Golici’ on November 26 in honour of the legendary musician’s 80th birthday at a special celebration held at the Pri Joževcu restaurant in Begunje. The song ‘Na Golici’ (‘On Golica’, a peak near the Slovenian-Austrian border) came about in 1953 when the composer came up with the main motive while at a workplace next at a knitting machine. Today, ‘Na Golici’ holds the record as the most-performed instrumental song in the world, according to the German copyright agency GEMA. Together with his brother Vilko Ovsenik, Slavko was the founder of ethnic-popular music or folk-pop, for which he is most remembered today, while his ensemble continues to be a major influence on all aspects of the genre, from the melodies to the marketing image of the performers.

Of the 50 albums the ensemble released, one earned diamond status, two reached platinum and 31 made gold, totalling over 35 million albums sold. Together the Avsenik/Ovsenik brothers complimented each other well, Slavko couldn’t read music and wrote songs as he felt them, while Vilko was a trained musician. Just as with most popular musicians of this time (the 1950’s), radio proved to be the key medium for the Avseniks. Back then, both traditional folk music and music recently-composed in a similar spirit were performed live on the radio. Before the Avsenks came along, a number of other artists became popular thanks to radio, including Avgust Stanko, Vaski kvintet, Fantje na vasi, Bozo and Misko, Rezika and Sonja, Danica Filiplic, Franc Koren and Beneski fantje — all of whom are now considered predecessors to folk-pop. In fact, it was because accordionist Avgust Stanko suddenly fell ill that Vilko Ovsenik, who was employed at Radio Ljubljana at the time, recommended his younger brother Slavko to ‘jump in’ as a replacement to accompany singers Danica Filipic and Franc Koren. This unique opportunity and experience — before that he had never thought about a career in music — opened the door for him to the music world where he eventually became a legend. A steep ascent to the top followed the radio trio’s modest beginnings as they went from being known as the Gorenjska Quartet, to the Avsenik Brothers Quartet to the Avsenik Brothers Ensemble, coming up with almost a thousand original melodies along the way and eventually achieving world fame.