Bel Tempo
# Bel Tempo

Bel Tempo (Serbian Cyrillic: Бел Темпо, transliteration for Belle Tempo, Italian for Nice Weather) was a Serbian and Yugoslav musical duo formed in Belgrade in 1986 and consisting of siblings Vladimir Petričević (guitar, keyboards and vocals) and Suzana Petričević (vocals).

At the time of Bel Tempo formation, Suzana Petričević had already gained prominence as a theatre actress. Their eponymous debut album, which featured the combination of pop rock and jazz, made them a prominent act of the Yugoslav rock scene. In 1992 the duo released their second album, Modesty, featuring similar sound, ending their activity soon after. They had made only one brief reunion, appearing on the 1996 MESAM festival.

## History

### 1986–1992

Bel Tempo was formed in 1986 in Belgrade by siblings Vladimir "Vlada" Petričević (guitar, keyboards, vocals) and Suzana Petričević (vocals), children of trumpeter Momir Petričević, who played trumpet in the Belgrade National Theatre orchestra. At the time of the band formation Vladimir was 20 and Suzana was 27. They chose the name after Bora Ćosić's play Bel Tempo. Suzana previously graduated at the Belgrade Faculty of Dramatic Arts and became an actress of the National Theatre in Belgrade, but had also acted in Zvezdara Theatre and Atelje 212. She had her singing debut on Momčilo Bajagić's 1984 album Pozitivna geografija, in the song "Papaline" ("Bristlings").

Initially the band rehearsed in the Boško Buha Theatre hall. They released their eponymous debut album in 1987 through PGP-RTB. Initially, PGP-RTB editors hesitated in publishing the album, perceiving its sound as non-commercial. The album featured pop rock sound combined with jazz, with some songs featuring brass section. All the songs were written by Vladimir, with the exception of the lyrics for the song "Povedi me" ("Take Me"), provided by Suzana. The album also featured the song "Zašto ne smem da te ljubim" ("Why I Can Not Kiss You"), a cover of a Hungarian romance. Bel Tempo was produced by Vladimir Racković (former leader of the acoustic rock band Odiseja), and featured Nenad Stefanović "Japanac" on bass guitar, Alekandar Ralev on keyboards, and Papa Nik on percussion. The album was better received by Zagreb audience than in Bel Tempo's home city of Belgrade, so the band often performed in Zagreb club Kulušić.

Due to Suzana Petričević's theatre obligations, the duo's second album appeared five years later, in 1992. The album was entitled Modesty and its concept was inspired by the comic character Modesty Blaise. The authors of the songs were both Vladimir and Suzana. The album featured Saša Lokner on keyboards, Aleksandar Jelić on bass guitar, Nenad Petrović on saxophone, and other musicians. After the album was released, Bel Tempo ended their activity, largely due to Suzana's pregnancy and the ongoing Yugoslav Civil War.

### Post breakup

After Bel Tempo ended their activity, Suzana performed for a year in Belgrade jazz club Tabu. On these performances she was backed by Serbian jazz veterans Miša Blam, Miša Krstić, Miša Komnenić and Saša Radojčić. Vladimir started working as an editor on Radio Television of Serbia.

Bel Tempo made a brief comeback to appear on the 1996 MESAM festival with the song "Ljubomora" ("Jealousy"). After this appearance, Vladimir wrote the songs "Budi mi drug" ("Be My Friend") and "Jedna pesma koju volim" ("A Song that I Love") for Marina Perazić's 1998 album Ista kao more (The Same as the Sea) and turned towards music for television, theatre and film. He wrote music for numerous Radio Television of Serbia shows. He wrote music for numerous feature and short films, most notably Goodbye in Chicago (1996), Virtual Reality (2001) and Doctor Ray and the Devils (2012). He composed music for numerous plays by National Theatre in Belgrade, Serbian National Theatre, National Theatre in Niš, Bitef Theatre, Zvezdara Theatre, Boško Buha Theatre, Pinocchio Puppet Theatre and other Serbian theatres. He worked as the music producer for the Belgrade National Theatre.

Suzana Petričević continued her acting career in theatre, on television and film. Together with Zoran Erić she wrote music for the play Doctor Faustus. In 2004 she released a multimedia CD through PGP-RTS, the disc featuring a cover of the song "Summertime", a video for the song and photographs. She appeared on the Beovizija 2004 festival with the song "Nikad više" ("Never Again").

## Discography

### Studio albums

* Bel Tempo (1987)
* Modesty (1992)

### Singles

* "Ljubomora" (1996)
