Ivana Rašić Trmčić ( sr-cyr, Ивана Рашић Трмчић, born on 12 October 1981), better known as Sajsi MC, is a Serbian rapper, singer and songwriter. Recognized as one of the most prominent female rappers in Serbia, her lyrics explore

sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

and other socio-political subjects.

Early life

Ivana Rašić was born in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

on 12 October 1981 and grew up in

Zaječar Zaječar ( sr-Cyrl, Зајечар, ; or ) is a city and the administrative center of the Zaječar District in eastern Serbia. According to the 2022 census, the city administrative area had a population of 48,621 inhabitants. Zaječar is widely ...

, where she lived until she was 19. Her father, Jovan Rašić, is a dentist and the founder and lead singer of the popular Yugoslavian

jazz rock Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music Music genre, genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, a ...

band

Generacija 5 Generacija 5 ( sr-Cyrl, Генерација 5; trans. ''Generation 5'') is a Serbian and Yugoslav rock band formed in Belgrade in 1977. The mainstay members of the band are keyboardist and band leader Dragoljub Ilić and guitarist Dragan Jova ...

. Her mother is from

Obrenovac Obrenovac ( sr-cyr, Обреновац, ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. According to the 2022 census results, the municipality has a population of 68,882 inhabitants, while the urban area has 25,380 inhabitants. The old name for Obreno ...

. Her younger sister Tijana, professionally known as Tijara, often collaborates with Sajsi. Rašić stated that she did not show interest in music during childhood, unlike her sister, and she only started writing lyrics during her university years.

Career

Rašić debuted at a rap festival in the Belgrade night club Barutana in 2002. Initially, Sajsi MC was a collective, which existed between 2005 and 2009. The name of their act is

Šatrovački ''Šatrovački'' (; Serbian Cyrillic: шатровачки) or ''šatra'' (; Serbian Cyrillic: шатра) is an argot within the Serbo-Croatian language comparable to verlan in French or vesre in Spanish. Šatrovački was initially developed ...

slang for

oral sex Oral sex, sometimes referred to as oral intercourse, is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a person by another person using the mouth (including the lips, tongue, or teeth). Cunnilingus is oral sex performed on the vu ...

. In 2010, Sajsi pursued a solo career under the same stage name by releasing her album ''Daleko je Dizni'' under Multimedia Music. The following year, she saw widespread mainstream attention after she had released the song "Mama" featuring Damjan Eltech in May 2011. The fictional character of a "shallow and materialistic" high school girl named Tiffany, which Sajsi portrayed in the song, was negatively commented by musical critics on

Radio Television of Serbia The Serbian Broadcasting Corporation, more commonly referred to as Radio Television of Serbia (), or RTS (), is the state-owned public radio and television broadcaster of Serbia. RTS has four organizational units – radio, television, music pro ...

, failing to recognize the

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

behind it. Sajsi MC has released three solo albums''Daleko je Dizni'' (2010), ''Rad, rad i samo bleja'' (2018) and ''Kardinalna'' (2022), and three EPs ''KNVK'' (2012), ''Pokvarenica'' (2014) and ''IVANARASHIC'' (2023). Some of her best-known songs include: "Antifa kučke" (2012), "Nadrkano hodanje" (2014), "Došla sam da dam" (2015), "Lokal beogradizam" (2016) and "Redaljka" (2017). She also collaborated with

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n singer Severina on their duet "Silikoni", released in July 2016. Over the years, Sajsi MC has performed at larger regional

music festival A music festival is a festival, community event with music, performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock music, rock, blues, folk music, folk, jazz, classical music), nation ...

s such as

EXIT Exit(s) may refer to: Architecture and engineering * Door * Portal (architecture), an opening in the walls of a structure * Emergency exit * Overwing exit, a type of emergency exit on an airplane * Exit ramp, a feature of a road interchange A ...

, Sea Dance Festival,

Belgrade Beer Fest The Belgrade Beer Fest () is an annual Beer festival, festival of beer in Belgrade, Serbia. Started in 2003, the festival is held annually over five days each August as a showcase event for various beer producers. In addition to domestic and fore ...

Arsenal Fest Arsenal Fest ( sr-cyr, Арсенал Фест) is a summer music festival held in Kragujevac, Serbia. It is staged annually since 2011 and occurs for three days every late June. History When it started in 2011, the festival had only a single sta ...

and

Guča Trumpet Festival Guča (Serbian Cyrillic: Гуча, pronounced ) is a small town near the city of Čačak, located in the Lučani municipality, Moravica District, in the Dragačevo region of western Serbia. As of 2022 census, it has a population of 3,185 inhabitan ...

Public image

Recognized as an

ally An ally is a member of an alliance. Ally may also refer to: Places * Ally, Cantal, France, a commune * Ally, Haute-Loire, France, a commune * Ally, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, a townland Arts and entertainment * Ally (novel), ''Ally'' (nove ...

to the LGBT+ community in Serbia, she was announced as the "godmother" of the 2022

Belgrade Pride Belgrade Pride () is an annual pride parade held in Belgrade, Serbia to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their allies. The first event was held in June 2001. Since 2014, Belgrade Pride has been organized an ...

, which was also the host of that year's

EuroPride EuroPride is a pan-European identity, pan-European international event dedicated to Gay pride, LGBT pride, hosted by a different European city each year. The host city is usually one with an established gay pride, pride event or a significan ...

event. In October 2022, she was also featured in an

UN Women The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity charged with working for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women is charged with advocating for the righ ...

campaign against

gender-based violence Gender-related violence or gender-based violence (GBV) refers to any kind of violence directed against people due to their gender or gender identification, culture may have a role to play, being lower in egalitarianism societies and higher, sexist ...

in Serbia.

Personal life

In 2017, she graduated from the

Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade The Faculty of Political Sciences (, abbreviated FPN) is a constituent institution of the University of Belgrade which focuses on education and research in the fields of political science, international relations, journalism and communication stu ...

with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in international relations. In August 2021, Rašić married

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

musician Marko Trmčić. On 25 January 2023, during the

Music Awards Ceremony The Music Awards Ceremony (often simply called the MAC) are annual popular music awards for Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, North Macedonia and Montenegro presented by Skymedia Group. The awards were first held on 29 January 20 ...

, she revealed her pregnancy. On March 12, Rašić gave birth to a daughter.

Discography

;Studio albums *''Misi nači naaš'' (2009); as Sajsi MC band *''Daleko je Dizni'' (2010) *''Od dvanaest do šest'' (2012); feat. Damjan Eltech *''Rad, rad i samo bleja'' (2018) *''Kardinalna'' (2022) *''Mater'' (2024) ;EPs *''KNVK'' (2012) *''Pokvarenica'' (2014) * ''IVANARASHIC'' (2023)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{Authority control Living people 1981 births Singers from Belgrade 21st-century Serbian women singers Serbian women rappers