Baja Mali Knindža

Mirko Pajčin (Serbian Cyrillic: Мирко Пајчин,* 13 October 1966), better known by his stage name Baja Mali Knindža (Serbian Cyrillic: Баја Мали Книнџа), is a Bosnian Serb folk singer and poet. He is most known for his wartime work and is still one of the most popular artists in Serbia.

Baja Mali Knindža Баја Мали Книнџа
Background information
Birth name	Mirko Pajčin
Born	(1966-10-13) October 13, 1966 Gubin, SFR Yugoslavia
Instrument(s)	Vocals
Years active	1989–present

Early life

Baja was born on 13 October 1966 in the village of Gubin, in current day Bosnia and Herzegovina.

While attending school, Baja claims that his Serbian language teacher Milan Poparić influenced him heavily and introduced him to poetry. He started writing songs, reciting acting and singing at a young age.

He attended high school in Bačka Palanka and ended up moving to Belgrade two years later.

After graduating from high school he started working at the IMT tractor factory in Belgrade, afterwards briefly at the then "Tito" shipyard before finishing his mandatory military service in Livno. After which he started working at the Belgrade airport but soon turned to singing as his profession when a Surčin friend held a celebration, where Baja was invited and got handed the microphone to sing. He recieved a tip which would be five times as big as his airport salary, saying to himself "Baja, you won't wake up early anymore".

Career

Baja would soon perform in cities like Sarajevo and its restaurant "Holidej" in Čengić vila, which was owned by a cousin of Lepi Mića, sharing the stage with artists like Ljubiša Vasiljević.

1989 would be the year he contributed to writing the Tromeđa album "Izvorne pjesme Dalmacije, Like i Krajine", including the legendary song "Nema raja bez rodnoga kraja". Later in the year Baja wanted to compete in the music competition "Prvi glas Livna", but was denied when the judges found out that the song "Nema raja" was already a on an album and that Baja was a professional musician. Nontheless he was allowed to perform it together with his song "Nemoj me lagati mila", just not enter the competition.

With the beginning of the breakup of Yugoslavia Baja's songs turned patriotic. He managed to gather just enough money to record his first album, just to lose it on the way to the people who recorded the songs. Now in debt and in search of a record label to take him, he eventually found Jugodisk after being rejected by PGP RTS. Finally published in early 1992, "Ne dam Krajine" would become a huge hit and catapult Baja to fame.

His second album, "Stan'te paše i Ustaše" in mid-1992 featured songs such as "Božić je", "Morem plovi jedna mala barka" or "Pevaj Srbijo", which would turn into his most popular and most recognizable songs. Despite this success, Baja was seemingly absent from media, except for select radio apperances on stations like Radio Beograd 202 or TV Politika, he claims he was practically banned from it. In 1992 he appeared on the then annual music festival "Poselo" with his song "Pevaj Srbijo", upon returning from the event he he would find out that as soon as it was his turn to sing, he got cut from the TV broadcasting.