Benefit concert honours Balkan legend Tose Proeski

08/10/2008

Under banners proclaiming "We all love you, Tose", more than 50,000 fans of the late Tose Proeski gathered in Skopje's City Stadium for a concert to honour the beloved singer.

By Goran Trajkov for Southeast European Times in Skopje – 08/10/08

Thousands of fans gathered to honour the late singer Tose Proeski. [Tomislav Georgiev]

October 5th was not a random date for the benefit concert honouring the late Tose Proeski. One year ago on that date, he performed what turned out to be his last concert; he died 11 days later in a car accident that stunned the Balkans. All proceeds from Sunday's concert went to humanitarian causes, in honour of Proeski's own commitment to charities. The ministry of culture and the International Tose Proeski Foundation sponsored the event.

It was the best-attended concert ever held in Macedonia, drawing more than 50,000 local and foreign fans. More than 20 musicians -- friends of Proeski -- performed, including Kaliopi, Simon Trpcevski, Naum Petreski, Aki Rahimovski, Sintezis and many more. Proeski's foundation awarded statuettes for good works to Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and all the concert performers. Andy Wright, a British producer who collaborated with Proeski, called him an "extraordinary singer".

The audience, still grief-stricken after a year of mourning, cried and sang along with the artists onstage. For those who were unable to attend, TV stations broadcast it to all the former Yugoslav states, Cyprus, Bulgaria and all countries belonging to the European Broadcasting Union. It was the highest-rated broadcast for Macedonia's Sitel TV this year.

TV links enabled fans sitting in studios in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria and Slovenia to express their sympathies to the concertgoers in Skopje.

Concert organisers were able to fulfil three aspirations of Proeski's. The first was to sell out the entire stadium. The second was to promote Macedonia with his English album, on which he was working at the time of his death. The third was to perform with his nephew, which he did in a video duet aired for the first time at the end of the concert.

The crowd's adoration of Proeski demonstrated how he may have accomplished what has eluded countless statesmen and politicians -- unite the disparate peoples of the former Yugoslavia.