12 Months – 12 Bands

BALKAN FANATIK

The Band:

With decades of musical background, the members of the band formed in 2002 decided to join their musical visions, crossing borders of genre and style.

One of the goals of the production is to acquaint musical cultures and styles with Western as well as with domestic audiences, thus the songs are sung in several languages. The duo of hip-hop-electronica-world music (Yorgos and Lepe) are accompanied by numerous performing artists in the studio and on the stage.

Concert performances:

Balkan Fanatik has been performing with great success in clubs and in festivals since 2003. The band has played in Vienna, Transylvania, Poland, Croatia and Serbia. Thousands of fans rave on the music of these guys on the Sziget Festival for years. Balkan Fanatik has opened for the American hip-hop legend Public Enemy, for the British legend Jethro Tull, for the world music superstar Transglobal Underground and the electro-punk Prodigy, just to name a few.

Videos/Hits/Movie Songs/TV Performances:

Since its establishment, Balkan Fanatik’s „MIX” music has been featured in the movies „Nyócker” and „Fekete leves”, the latter came into the cinema in 2014. The first radio hit of the band called „Csináld, csináld, jól csináld!” debuted in a live performance in 2004 in the famous Fábry Show. The sensation of 2006 was the collaboration performance of „Tike, Tike Kardi” with persian-swedish pop star Arash, which became an instant radio hit. This song debuted on the Fonogram Awards Ceremony broadcasted by the Hungarian National Television. The „Hungarikum” live show recorded live for the television in 2006 was a great success, it is regularly broadcasted by Duna TV and MTV Hungary, the Hungarian music channel. The band was special guest of the „Örömtánc Ünnep” song and dance contest in 2008 produced by M1 TV channel. Péter Novák referred to the band as ’stars of the genre’ on live broadcast, Márta Sebestyén has also praised them. „There are very few of those who can worthily cover Hungarian folk music, and Balkan Fanatik does it in the most excellent way.”

Their third album, entitled American Perestroika was crafted in 2009 with the contribution of American star rapper Prophet, the teaser hit single of which was the folk song cover„Ha te tudnád…”. The song is a Hungarian radio favourite ever since. One of the remixes of the song has been included on the Buddha Bar XV. release in 2013.

A new hit song emerged in fall 2010 which is the cover of the folk song „Repülj madár” that is floating in broadcast as a success story with the contribution of well-known Hungarian media personality Péter Geszti.

Several hit songs of the 2011 autumn release „Ölelj magadhoz” are circulating in the Hungarian media, with titles like „Csá!”, „Csiripeltem bébi” and „Ha én szabad lennék”.

The spring of 2014 saw the release of „Feljött a Nap”, the most successful album to date. The title song is the favourite of the national media.

Awards:

– Young Master of Folk Arts

– Fonogram Award. The debut album of Balkan Fanatik was awarded as ’Best World Music Record’ of 2004.

– Bezerédj Award for nurturing Hungarian folk music culture (issued by the Ministry of Culture)

Other sensations:

3SAT channel in Germany has been broadcasting „123Istambul (Through the Balkans in a VW)” road trip series four times a month since February 2009, the producer team of which has been selecting music for the series among others from the repertoire of Balkan Fanatik.

Greece’s Sony-BMG record label released a compilation record called „Global Hip-Hop” in early 2009, featuring the Balkan Fanatik song „Itt jön a betyár!”.

At the end of October 2009, the band gave a charity performance in Bucharest, Romania, on the „Fundraising Party” of Ovidiu Rom Children Care Foundation, the patroness of which was Leslie Hawke. /the mother of Hollywood actor Ethan Hawke/.

As the background music of the image film ’Budapest Business Region’ the hit song „Ha te tudnád” debuted on a brand new territorry in 2009 (as requested by director István Madarász).

In the spring of 2010 Balkan Fanatik contributed to the designing of the EU-tender won by Transglobal Underground (U.N.I.T.E. – Urban Native Integrated Traditions of Europe).

Balkan Fanatik has performed a special acoustic set on „Hey June” festival held on the 23rd of June, 2010 in the Palace of Arts, accompanied by many guest artists.

Two songs from the album American Perestroika was featured on the extra DVD of the Japanese VOGUE and GQ magazines, the songs were used in the short film „R”, starring Rinko Kikuchi. (dirceted by : Michel Comte, produced by: Edward Oleschak)

Balkan Fanatik has created the film score version of the folk song cover „Repülj madár” for the national image film (Hungary – World of Potentials) as requested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the period of Hungary’s EU-presidency in 2011.

The group performed with great success on the Ritam Evrope festival, held for popularizing the EU accession in Zagreb in 2011.

The band performed with great success on the MR Szimfonik Live show of Petőfi Rádió on the SZIGET festival in 2011.

The band received an invitation to performance on the MNB Klub Creators and Tuners of Values club event in 2014.