Riblja Ćorba

Riblja čorba is one of the most popular Serbian and Yugoslav rock groups, founded in Belgrade in 1978.

The history

Beginning (1978—1979)

Before breaking up with the group Rani mraz and Đorđe Balašević in 1978, Bora Đorđević spent several years in the group Suncokret, his first big band, which also included Gorica Popović, Nenad Božić, Snežana Jandrlić, Bilja Krstić and Miodrag Bata Sokić.

On a deserted Belgrade dock, he decided to form a new band with a harder sound. He connects with friends from the SOS group (Miša Aleksić, Rajko Kojić and Miroslav Milatović Vicko) and the founder of Riblja čorba. The group was officially formed in the restaurant Šumatovac on August 15, 1978. It was originally supposed to be called "Bora i ratnici", and then they decided on "Riblja čorba". It was Belgrade menstrual slang.

The first concert of Riblja čorba was held in the Vojvodina town of Elemir on August 26, 1978, followed by concerts in Subotica and Sarajevo, where they gained a new audience. On December 22, they release the first single with the songs Puppet on the cover and He and his BMW, which immediately gained great popularity. After the release of the single, Bora Djordjevic concludes that he needs another guitar to strengthen the sound and thus definitely separate it from the comparison with the "White Button". Then Rajko brought a 19-year-old guitarist, Momcilo Bajagić Bajaga, whom he knew from the band Glogov kolac, to the group. The first concert in the new line-up was held on January 7, 1979 in Jarkovac. They held the first Belgrade concert on February 28 at the Youth Center. At the beginning of March, they went to play about twenty concerts in Macedonia. The tour was a great success, but financially it was a failure. At the concert in Dalovo, Miša missed the stage in ecstasy, fell and broke his leg, so Miroslav Cvetković replaced him at concerts in Sandžak (later in Bajaga and the instructors).

On March 19, 1979, after several gigs promoting songs that would later be on their debut album, they released their second single with the songs "Rock and Roll for Home Council" and "Valentino from the Restaurant". The song "Valentino from the restaurant" was composed by Rajko on the text of Marina Tucakovic. The song was also performed at the "Evening of Free Forms" of the Festival of Pop Music in Opatija. On September 1, the promotion of the debut record was held on Tasmajdan. Wanting to make a good party for the visitors, Bora advertised the concert with the slogan: "Fish soup will not rob you of money - the entrance of two catfish", which was a very popular price at that time. The groups Bulevar, in which Dejan Cukić sang at the time, and Nele Stamatović and Formula 4 from Sarajevo played the guitar, performed as a pre-group. It was surprising that the audience knew all the songs by heart, even though the album was released only ten days after the concert.

In 1979, Bora and Rajko went to military service. The group did not immediately take a break, as they played at a marathon concert in Sarajevo on November 28, 1979. They performed without Bora, Rajko played in uniform, and Miša, since he did not know all the lyrics, left the initiative to the audience. Soon he too joined the army.

The debut album "Bone in the Throat" was recorded in 1979. and then Bajaga worked with them in the studio for the first time. However, due to the efficient use of time, Rajko Kojić played his parts. The record was produced by Enco Lesić, and in addition to Bora, the authors are Miša, Rajko and Nenad Božić from Suncokret, who was the co-author of the music for the song "Mirno spavaj". All the songs on the record were created as a result of Bora's new interest in topics that deal with everyday life, and the untwisted language caused problems at the beginning. Thus, in the song "Sleep peacefully", the controversial verse "drink your sedatives" because it is associated with drugs, which is why a whole part of the circulation had to be withdrawn. The first hundred sold copies of the plate with the original text have the status of rarities today. Bora preventively changed the name of the song "Another shitty day" to "Another itchy day". Besides her, the album also included the songs "Stay garbage until the end", "Star of the attic and basement", "Egoist", "She borrowed money, went completely crazy, bought a ticket and sat on the train", etc. The final circulation of the Bone in the Throat record stopped at about 120,000 copies sold. In the music newspaper, Bor was proclaimed the rock person of the year, and their hard rock sound with blues elements did not matter, although punk and the new wave have already begun to gain popularity.

Early 1980s (1980-1984)

At the end of July 1980, Bora, thanks to his exemplary behavior in the army, appeared in Belgrade on a rewarding leave. Along with Rajko Kojić, who escaped from the Sarajevo barracks, Bajaga and Vicko recorded the song Back to the Big Dirty City in one night. As Miša did not get permission from the military authorities to come, Bajaga also recorded the bass sections. Upon his return to the barracks, Rajko was given 15 days in prison because his superior saw Rajko's picture in the newspaper. The single with the song Back to the Big Dirty City appeared on September 1, 1980. There was an uncensored version of the song Mirno spavaj on the B-side, which suddenly didn't bother anyone anymore.

On the eve of the New Year, Rajko also arrived from the army, so the completed ones play on December 31 and January 1, 1981 with the Atomic Shelter in the Pionir Hall at concerts called "Atomic Soup".

After returning from the army, the group entered Ence Lesić's studio and until mid-February 1981, the group recorded the album "Broken Imagination and Dirty Passions", for which Bora from the army sent lyrics for some songs, while on his return he would have finished songs. for which Bajaga was largely credited. Of the other songs from this album are worth mentioning: I will stay free, Easy man, Some women followed the soldiers. Two dinars, my friend, was the first of three items of Fish Soup, which became the hit of the year on Hit 202. At the end of 1981, the album reached a circulation of 200,000 copies. He officially appeared in stores on February 23, and a week before that, Riblja čorba triumphed at Zagreb concerts as part of the "Greetings from Belgrade" campaign. An eighty-year-old lady was planned to appear on the cover of the album, but around that time, the album of Bijelo dugme Doživjeti stotu appeared with a similar solution, so in the end, the writer Miloš Jovančević appeared on the cover. During two concerts in the New Belgrade Sports Hall, which gathered nearly 5,000 visitors per evening. This performance was an introduction to the successes that the group achieved during the tour of Yugoslavia when they toured 59 cities. At the end of June, they were the stars of the evening at "Vjesnik's" concert in Zagreb, where leading domestic groups gathered. Miša could not play due to his marriage, so Miroslav Cvetković replaced him again.

Fish soup is already performing some things from the new album. By the way, the concerts were followed by numerous incidents caused by the invasion of the audience and poor security. The first sign of future troubles is the so-called "Concert for broken ribs" on September 10, 1981 in Rokoteka on Kalemegdan, where the fence was broken, so only by a miracle no one was killed, although there were many cases for the emergency center and hundreds of lost shoes. Despite the injuries, the concert received good reviews in the newspapers, and that evening they played a part of new songs with a guest from England, bassist John McCoy.

The third album "Still Life", produced by Mekoj, was released in November. Bajaga himself wrote I was lying to you, while the other striking things were the product of Bora's lyrics and music by everyone. The album also includes Don't Believe a Woman Who Smokes the Drina Without a Filter, Going to the City, Nothing New in the West, Baker, Doctor, Pharmacist, I Don't Want to Be an Animal, I Love, I Love Women. The album sold a record 500,000 copies and Riblja čorba broke through to the very top of the Yugoslav music scene.

The group will start the tour, which, as it turns out, is a little awkwardly called: "Whoever survives - will talk". Namely, 15,000 young people appeared at the concert in the Zagreb Ice Hall on February 8, 1982, and since only two doors were open, 14-year-old Zeljka Markovic from Zagreb, who died of her injuries, was trampled in the crowd. That created additional troubles for Bora, which were already big.

At the beginning of February, a letter was published in "Ilustrovana Politika" in which it was written on the topic of the political suitability of Fish Soup. That was enough for the SUBNOR of the Skopje municipality of Karpos to submit a request to ban the record because of the verses For ideals, fools die and jerks rise in revolt and die from the song Nothing New in the West. Immediately after them, SUBNOR Sarajevo and SUBNOR Bezdana joined that request, as well as the Alliance of Socialist Youth of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The affair is taking on great proportions in the media, so Riblja čorba was forced to interrupt its concert in Celje for the first time in its career, because the firefighters on duty were too aggressive towards the audience. The concert in Sarajevo could have been held only when Bora wrote an explanation for the lyrics of all the songs he would perform and signed that he would sing nothing new in the West at his own risk. They could not play in Tuzla because, as it was stated, "the organizer cannot ensure order and peace during the concert of a group whose behavior is not in line with socialist morality." The whole thing calmed down when the group was defended by the then president of the veterans' organization.

The promotional tour on the occasion of the album Mrtva priroda, Riblja čorba ended by playing four nights in a row, in mid-April 1982 in the Belgrade hall Pionir. The concerts were held a month late, because the organizers delayed due to the case in Zagreb, fearing whether they would be able to offer adequate security. There was no reason for fear because they played in the half-empty Pionir on the first night, which was a big surprise. However, the other two evenings were filled in the right way, and their concert album "In the Name of the People" was recorded at the performance on April 11. The plaque was named after the initial line in which the verdict was pronounced in court, thus clearly alluding to Bora's political problems. During four days, "21,000 people watched the soup together with numerous guards and police officers." Political calm around Chorba led to an unusual decision. On Youth Day and Marshal Tito's birthday, May 25, 1982, they received the May Award of the City Committee of the Socialist Youth Alliance with the explanation that "the group sings about the life and problems of young people and has become a symbol of a large part of youth.

"The record In the Name of the People was released a couple of months later and, like all the previous ones, went great, reaching a circulation of 120,000 and becoming the best-selling concert album in the former Yugoslav rock history. A few days later, Riblja čorba, along with other local groups, played in Marx and Engels Square at a concert on the occasion of solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people. During the year, there are the first major disagreements in the band. Bora wants another album by the end of the year, while Bajaga thinks a break is needed.

However, Borina is the last, and the fifth album "Flea Market" will be released in the fall, which already had a lot of commercial sound, but also weaker lyrics. The record was again produced by John McCoy, and the mix was made in London. Along with Čorba, Kornelije Kovač participated in the recording, playing keyboards, while in some songs strings and a wind line appeared, so that the record also carried some of the elements of acoustic sound. Bora did the lyrics for all the songs, except for "Baby, baby don't go end" which is completely Bajagina. Sladjana Milosevic was originally supposed to sing that song on her record, but Bora insisted on staying with the soup. Miša, Rajko and Vicko signed as the authors of the music on the rest of the material. Bora definitely changed the subject and the album included songs with a "social" message like Listen, son, I'm fighting alone, Rules, When the whole world falls on your head, How nice it is to be stupid (inspired by Bora's stay in the JNA). The songs from the album also appear as a kind of "soundtrack" for the comedy Tight Skin. However, despite the 300,000 records sold, this album is considered the beginning of the fall of Riblje čorba. The group embarked on the tour two weeks after the release of the record and faced a weakened audience interest. Based on the votes of the readers of Bazar, Bora was chosen as the ideal man, to which he responded with the song "Housewives, take off your panties, I love your flannel nightgowns".

They finished the big tour at the beginning of April 1983 with an ambitious concert at the Fairgrounds, for which Bora wanted to become his Hajduk fountain. The idea for Sajmište was Borina, since he was sentimentally attached to that space because as a boy, Petar Popović took him to one of the famous guitar festivals that took place there.

Wanting to renovate that space, Bora organized a concert almost alone with Mišo Aleksić. They tried to make the largest stage ever seen in Yugoslavia, and it was accompanied by adequate quality lighting and sound. Bora recorded radio commercials with Marko Janković and Zoran Modli. In advocating for the concert, he went so far as to throw leaflets from a plane over Novi Sad, Zrenjanin, Sabac, Pancevo and Belgrade. The concert was called "Bread and Games", and the pre-groups were D'Boys and Silhouettes, in which the young Nikola Čuturilo played the guitar at the time. 170 policemen and 340 wardens were hired to maintain order. Bora was expecting a big crowd, so he even bet with his friends that if he didn't sell 10,000 tickets, he would get a haircut. As only 8,000 were sold, Bora really shaved his head after the gig. And that was preceded by another ritual haircut, because that evening the group said goodbye to Vicko Milatović, who was going to the army, so they immediately cut his hair on the stage and made him fit for the army. Instead of him, Vlajko Golubović, a man who was previously part of Tilt and Suncokret, and later in Bajaga and instructors, took the drum chair.

The break in the work of the group was first used by Rajko Kojić and he released the mini album Don't wake me without a reason (PGP RTB 1983). Rajko wrote the music, and Bora and Bajaga wrote the lyrics. Keyboardist Laza Ristovski, bassist Neša Japanac and Vlajko Golubović played on the record, and Bora sang three of his own and one of Bajaga's lyrics. At the end of the same year, Bajaga decided to record his album Positive Geography, after a series of things done for others (Bulevar, Zdravko Colic).

In 1984, Positive Geography was released and Bajaga became the number 1 hit in the country. However, he claims that he remains faithful to Riblja čorba, which is shown by entering the studio and the album Tonight you are entertained by musicians who drink. As PGP RTB did not want the soups to finance the filming in London, they moved to Zagreb's Jugoton. The record was produced by Kornelija Kovač with the members of the group in Ljubljana, and the mix was made in London. Immediately after its release, in 1984, the republic censors declared three songs morally unsuitable, so the record received the label of a shund product and thus a higher sale price. The album comes out in the spring and is considered by many to be one of the best. First of all, the rhythm is different due to Vicko's absence behind the drums, and the music is mostly Bajagin, which turned out to be a winning combination. Bajaga wrote the music for five songs, including two complete of his When You Walk and Tonight you are entertained by drinking musicians. Problems have been created because of the lyrics. Mangupi spoils your child and Angry Dogs in which, among other things, Bora sings: Greek smugglers, Arab students, negative elements, juvenile delinquents and angry dogs, which caused international upheavals. The embassies of three Arab countries, and even the African state of Zaire, complained because Bora equated Arab students with angry dogs. Then, the Republic Ministry of Culture ordered an expert analysis of the song, and before Chorba's Belgrade concert, a request arrived from the CEC not to perform the song. The tour, despite a great album, went pretty badly. The record was sold in a record 120,000 copies that year, despite the fact that it was officially declared a "shund".

Late 1980s (1984-1989)

During the summer, the band "disintegrates" when media favorite Bajaga and Rajko are kicked out of the group. Namely, the group was offered a gig in Greece, where a lot of money was offered. Bora contacted Rajko and Bajaga, who are on an agreed vacation, through Miša. Rajko, who has already been "accused" of playing badly during the tour, refuses and Bora decides to fire him. Bajaga roughly reacted "if the one who brought me goes, I will go too". Bora "solved" everything with the Solomon proclamation in "Express Politika", where he stated that Bajaga and Rajko are no longer members of Riblje čorba.

Guitarists Vidoja Božinović Džindžer (former member of Opus and Rok machine) and Zoran Dašić are coming to the group as replacements. Vicko returned from the army, while Vlajko Golubović moved to Bajaga and instructors. Dasic left the group due to family obligations after several rehearsals. He later founded his own group Legends, for which Bora wrote lyrics for seven songs and composed music for two songs on their album Dođi druze do Srbije uže. Instead of Dasic, Nikola Cuturilo became a member of the group, who spent the spring of 1984 in Electric Orgasm. He played new members of Bor in almost anonymous performances. Thus, on the last evening of the Belgrade Summer in the Youth Center on September 20, they performed under the name "Debeli Bogoljub i ljuti tezgarosi". On the eve of the concert, only the friends of the group knew that Fish Soup was hiding behind that name. Throughout the fall, the group played in smaller halls, strengthening ties between new members and natives.

During this period, there was cooperation between Goran Bregović and Đorđević, who were rivals at the time. He wrote half of the text on the album Bijelo dugme Bora and sang with Goran and Tif in the song "Pedikulis Pubis". The cooperation between Bijelo dugme and Bora helped shake the status of Riblje čorba. During the winter, Riblja čorba also retired to the studio and recorded a new album Istina, in 1985. The record was recorded by Ratko Ostojić and Goran Vejvoda, while the producer was again John McCoy. Goran Bregović returned the visit by singing in the song Disko mišić, and Džinder and Čutura signed as the authors of one song each. The album includes the song Pogledaj dom svoj, anđele, which was later chosen by the listeners of Hit of the Week 202 as the song of the year, and in 1990 as the song of the decade. Before the release of the record, the group presented new songs at the Kulušić club as part of the "Better Find You" campaign, when groups from Belgrade were guests in Zagreb. Although many at the time considered Fish Soup a part of the past, they were triumphantly sent off from the concert with two encores. The cover of the album Istina showed the faces of the members of the group built into Ćele-kula. Because of the songs Look at Your Home, Angels, Opposition Forces, Hello and Court Fool, Jugoton refused to print the record, so the group returned to PGP RTB. PGP RTB refused to print only the Forces of the Opposition, while in the song Alo the verse from the mountain jackal howls was changed, there is Yugoslavia in me from distant lands watching someone else's week. The idea to release The Power of the Opposition as a single was rejected, because the newspapers published the verses of the controversial song. Djordje Marjanovic collaborated with the group on the tour of the Soviet Union, while Zika Jelic from the Yu group played on the tour of Bosnia, since Misa Aleksic was sick.

The following year, the group released the album Osmi nervni slom, produced by Kornelija Kovač and with new guests: actress Ana Kostovska sang in the song "Prokleto sam", Jovan Maljoković played the saxophone in "Jedan čovjek", and Eddie Grant sang two stanzas in the song Amsterdam, by taking him to the studio literally after his performance in the Pionir hall. In addition to the song Amsterdam, the hit hit on the record was Don't Walk My Street, while the other songs were on ice due to the self-censorship of the music editors. At the beginning of 1986, at the session of the Commission of the Presidency of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia for information and propaganda activities, the texts of Fish Soup were even discussed. The politics of the dilemma did not affect the audience much, so on March 8, 1986, in front of tens of thousands of people gathered at Sarajevo's Rok Uranka in Skenderija, Riblja čorba began its most successful tour since the time of the Dead Nature record. At the end of March, after a four-year break, they refilled Pionir and thus confirmed their return to the stage.

Vicko used the momentum that the group was gaining, so he published his solo discographic debut "In the rhythm of the heart of a little drummer" in June 1986 for PGP RTB. The record was produced by Kornelije Kovač, Vicko sang, and guitarists Miodrag Živadinović and Dragan Deletić Delta, bassist Dragan Gajić and drummer Zoran Radovanović Baki played. All songs were written by Vicko with the help of Miodrag Zivadinovic. Vicko wrote most of that material during the record "Still Life" and while working with the group Warriors. Vicko practiced a musical trip during the Fish Soup break, but Bora did not rest either. On the record of the group Kerber Seobe, he was a guest in the song Man of Honey, while Boran and Čutura wrote three lyrics for them.

At the same time, Bora was forced to say goodbye to his career in indoor soccer. Defending the goal of the Delirium Tremens team injured the Achilles tendon, and because of that, the group did not hold a series of performances where they planned to check new songs in front of the audience.

Instead, for the first time in their careers, members recorded demo versions of songs for the next album. At the end of the year, they received awards at MESAM as the rock band of the year, Bora was named the best composer, while Miša is the author of the hit of the year, the song Amsterdam.

In February 1987, they released the ninth album, Ujed za dušu, on which Bora composed three and a half songs, and the authors were Ginger, Čutura and Miša. Then they do the first processing, which will later be a frequent occurrence on their boards. The song The Last Train to Čačak is a cover of Neil Diamond's Last Train To Claksville, which was once performed by the Mankiz group. Apart from the song A Member of the Mafia, in which Bora described the League of Communists on the matrix of Caribbean music, there were almost no political topics on the rest of the record. Two of Bora's songs Nesrećnice, nije te sramota and Why Dogs Arlauče, which did not enter the competition for the record, were published on a gift single that was shared with the first thousand albums.

In the same year, Bora Djordjevic was tried for "insulting the working people of Yugoslavia", but the indictments were rejected.

The tenth anniversary of the group's work (1988) was marked by the compilation Fish Soup 10 and the album A Story of Love Usually Oppressive, which, despite growing political problems, had almost no political lyrics, but a series of benign themes: Plane, I'll break your wings, Who loves you while I'm on guard, Around me, etc. On the occasion of the jubilee, they played a concert at the Fairgrounds, which gathered 15,000 young people. But before that, the SUP did not allow them to hold a free concert on the plateau in front of the temple of St. Sava, where the Pilots and EKV were still to play. However, personal problems in the group continued. While working in soup, Čutura started writing for others, so his lyrics were on the records of Dejan Cukić, Yu Group, Kerber, and in 1988 he recorded the first solo record "Nine Easy Pieces". After the release of his second record, Čutura left the group on November 1, 1989 and entered solo waters. At the moment when everyone was predicting the cessation of work of Riblje čorba, guitarist Zoran Ilić, who had previously been a member of the band Bezobrazno zeleno, joined the group.

The 1990s (1990-1999)

When everyone predicted the termination of the group due to personal changes, Riblja čorba with a new member recorded the album Koza nostra produced by Sasa Habić, and as guests appeared Džoni Štulić and the group Azra, Gorica Popović, Bilja Krstić, Snežana Jandrlić, while Sasa played keyboards Lokner from Bajaga and an instructor. The album brought songs by Al Capone, Where are you in this stupid hotel, Tito is yours and Montenegro, Bar (cover of the song Memphis, Tennessee) by Chuck Beria.

After the beginning of the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, Bora Djordjevic became an active supporter of Serbian soldiers in the Republika Srpska and the Republika Srpska Krajina. During the war years, Riblja čorba played abroad and published records that did not leave a deeper mark.

The album "Swan Song" was originally intended as a farewell, but they decided to continue working. The record was recorded at the end of 1991 in Vienna, and apart from Eric Bardon's song "When I Was Young", no one else remained in the media, and three planned songs by Oliver Mandić were thrown out of the record (What else can you do? you give me, Dream Shop, Vukovar). There were three more unpublished songs: Me and my brother are waging war, Halfway to Happiness and Goodbye to the Mind.

Even with the next album Goodbye, Serbia's Fish Soup did not achieve greater success. Along with the arrangements Green Grass of My Home from the repertoire of Tom Jones, Today There is No Milk by the group Hermans Hermits and Dark Night is by Mark Burns from the play of the same name, most of the other songs did not achieve noticeable success. The only novelty in the group was the keyboardist and co-producer of that record, Vlada Barjaktarević (former member of Van Gogh). Vicko reflected in solo waters again in 1996, when he released a CD with pornographic songs as part of the group Indians for ITMM.

In the summer of 1996, when Riblja čorba was playing in Republika Srpska at the rallies of the Serbian Democratic Party, Zoran Ilić did not perform with them, and then it was announced that he was no longer a member of the group. On the disc "The rest is silence", which the soup released at the time, there was "Jealousy", a cover of the song Jelaous Guy by John Lennon and a song by Gjilan, a cover of a song by the Swiss musician Paul Hofer. In parallel with this record, Bora recorded the album Their Days for Radio Bijeljina in 1996, the only album that bears his name, not the name of the group, because he is extremely politically engaged and directed against the government of Slobodan Milosevic.

At the beginning of 1997, Riblja čorba held a tour called "In the free cities of Serbia", which ended with two concerts on Tasmajdan. In the same year, they published the compilation "Third Serbian Uprising", which includes a selection of political songs created during their entire career. Of the previously unpublished materials, the compilation included "Opposition Forces" and "I Love You Too", created during the civil protest in the winter of 1996/1997.

In 1999, the album "Noah's Ark" was released with the songs "16 Nights", "Gastarbajterska 2", "Noah's Ark", etc. On this album, 15 years after he left the group, Bajaga again collaborated with čorba, composing the song "Gde si" in which he sang the backing vocals. On the same day that the album was released, Fish Soup promoted the album at Club XL, where they sang all the songs from the newly released album.

2000 - 2020

In 2001, the album Pišanje uz vetar was released, which included songs such as Srbin je lud, Ljubav ovde više ne stanuje, Daj mi lovu etc. This album, according to critics, repeated the success of the previous album. On the same day that the album was released, Fish Soup, like the previous time, promoted the album again at Club XL. Riblja čorba held a concert at the OFK Belgrade stadium on June 8, 2002. This concert promoted the album Pišanje uz vetar.

In 2003, the album Here with the songs The Last Song About You, Plajvaz, Here, etc. was released. The album was a little worse than the previous two, there were only two love songs on this album, and those are The Last Song About You and 100 Years of Solitude. On the same day that the album was released, Riblja Corba, as in the case of the previous two albums, promoted the album again at Club XL.

After the early parliamentary elections on December 28, 2003, Bora Djordjevic was appointed Assistant Minister of Culture as a member of the Democratic Party of Serbia in 2004, but was forced to resign in 2005 after accusing a B92 journalist of espionage and anti-Serbian policy.

Riblja čorba held a concert in Ušće on July 3, 2004, called Stay Here, which marked 25 years of work.

With a concert in Sežana Slovenia on June 18, 2005, Riblja čorba held its jubilee 1000th concert in its career.

In late 2005 and early 2006, the band recorded a new album, but this time it was conceived as a triple CD, with the discs being released one by one. The first disc was called "Innocence Without Protection" which was released on December 27, 2005 and contained four songs, of which the song "Sponsors", the second disc of the trilogy was called "Virgin Islands" which was released on March 21, 2006 and contained is five songs, among which the biggest hit is "Bilo je žena". The third disc, "Ambassadors of Bad Will", was planned for May 2006, but was released only on December 10, 2006. It contained the song "Contempt", which appeared in the film "Conditional Freedom". And then, on February 12, 2007, City Records released the complete "Trilogy" on one disc with all 14 songs. In the end, it turned out that this album turned out to be a big failure, just because the parts of the "Trilogy" that were released during 2005 and 2006 sold poorly.

On March 10, 2007, Riblja čorba held a concert in the Belgrade Arena. There were 20,000 people in the Arena, which is one of the most visited concerts of Fish Soup. At the end of 2008, they recorded the next album "Minute with her", which was released in February 2009. This album contains almost all songs of a love character (with the exception of the initial "I'll do whatever I want").

At the suggestion of the organizers of the Fish Soup concert in Ljubljana, held in September 2009, a postage stamp dedicated to the band was released in Slovenia.

On October 31, 2009, Riblja čorba held a concert again in the Belgrade Arena. As at the previous concert in the Arena, two years earlier, there were 20,000 people again. At the end of September 2010, Riblja čorba released a live album Niko nema ovakve ljude! which contains a recording of the entire concert held in the Belgrade Arena on October 31, 2009.

And then, in the summer of 2012, they record a new album "Alert!" which has been produced much better than all previous albums since 1992. This time the producer was again the British John McCoy who produced the albums "Still Life", "Flea Market" and "Truth". The album includes songs such as "Uzbuna", "Užasno mi nedostaje", "Malograđanska", as well as a cover of a South American song "Lelek Serba". There were 12 songs on the album.

On March 23, 2013, fish soup held a concert in the Belgrade Arena, which marked 35 years of work. Compared to the previous two concerts in the Arena, this time the attendance was somewhat lower: 15,000 people.

On November 29, 2020, Miša Aleksić passed away due to the consequences of the coronavirus, his death is undoubtedly a great loss for Riblja čorba because he was a composer and producer on the group's albums.