Bosnian musician Goran Bregovic, who has been banned from performing in Moldova because of his outspoken pro-Moscow views, is due to perform at least twice in the coming months in NATO and EU member Romania, RFE/RL has learned.
Bregovic and his band over the weekend were refused entry to Moldova, where they were scheduled to perform at a folk festival.
On August 21, Chisinau cited a ban on Bregovic imposed last year because of his pro-Russian views as the reason for not allowing his band, The Wedding and Funeral Orchestra, into Moldova.
Bregovic was to arrive in Chisinau on August 20 but canceled his trip after being told that his band had been stopped from entering Moldova.
In a statement, the 73-year-old artist said he was puzzled by the ban and did not mention the war in Ukraine or Russia.
Moldova, sandwiched between Romania and war-wracked Ukraine, has taken an increasingly pro-Western position since U.S.-educated liberal politician Maia Sandu became president in 2020 and last month Chisinau ordered a reduction of more than two-thirds of the staff of Russia's embassy.
But in neighboring Romania, with whom Moldova shares a common history and language, Bregovic's scheduled concerts still have a green light from authorities, with his fee for one gig seemingly funded by EU money.
On September 2, Bregovic is scheduled to perform at a fishermen's festival in Jurilovca, a touristic village in the Danube Delta whose population is of ethnic Russian origin.
"This year's attractions: Goran Bregovic and 50,000 portions of fisherman's borscht offered by the the town hall," the village's mayor, Ion Eugen, boasts gleefully on the village's Facebook page.
The festival is financed from EU funds, Eugen told RFE/RL, adding that Bregovic's fee is 30,000 euros ($32,670).
On October 7, Bregovic and his band are scheduled to perform in Bucharest at the Palace Hall, the former venue of notorious communist Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's party congresses.
Tickets cost up to 320 lei ($70).
Bregovic came under scrutiny from Ukrainian authorities after performing in 2015 in Crimea.
He was subsequently banned from performing in Ukraine and banned from a festival in Poland. Commenting on the Polish ban, Bregovic said at the time that the West has a "paranoid" attitude toward Russia and declared himself an admirer of "Russian greatness."
Bregovic, whose father and mother were Croatian and Serbian, has declared himself a nostalgic after former Yugoslavia.
A founding member of the Yugoslav rock band Bijelo Dugme (White Button), an act very popular in many ex-communist countries, he later pursued a solo career and formed his own folk-inspired band.
Bregovic and his band have performed at world-famous venues such as New York's Carnegie Hall, London's Royal Albert Hall, and L'Olympia in Paris.
He has composed scores for several successful films directed by fellow-Bosnian director Emir Kusturica and for the Academy Award-nominated movie La Reine Margot (Queen Margot).