Klapa singing, which found itself inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage of Humanity back in 2012, is an inseparable part of Dalmatian tradition, and nothing compliments the soft lapping of the waves of the sparkling Adriatic sea and the golden sunset over the mountains quite like the sound of this old, traditional a capella singing.
This type of singing draws its original traditions from littoral church singing and the word ”klapa” translates to ”a group of friends”, giving the performances an even warmer feel. These beautiful songs sung by the various groups and bands (of which there are very many) up and down Dalmatia generally focus on love, the Adriatic, Croatia, and wine.
The desire to keep these musical traditions alive in Dalmatia has seen numerous festivals be created, one of the most famous being held in Omis, in central Dalmatia. While it’s common to witness and hear klapa groups singing songs with more adult themes and being comprised of adults, children also take part, and excellently so at that.
As Morski writes on the 18th of July, 2019, the children’s klapa group ”Baliniera”, where children from the wider Zadar area, including Preko, Ugljan, Kali and sing klapa songs, won at the fifteenth International Folklore, Dance and Music Festival “Etoiles de Paris” taking an impressive first place in the category a capella juniors.
The children sang four songs – ”Cetina”, ”Pere se putem falio”, ”Paun leti” and ”Dobro jutro”, which was more than enough for the expert jury to award them the first prize.
Otherwise, as many as 51 groups from all over the world compete in the aforementioned Paris festival, and only the children’s klapa group ”Baliniera” has been presented from the Republic of Croatia.
Watch the group sing the traditional song ”O da mi je cimentati more” here:
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