The song was written by
Teya Dora,
Coby and Luxonee.
Albino [
sr] sang the backing vocals.[1] Teya Dora pointed out that it is difficult for her to perform "Džanum" live because it reminds her of her father Dragan, whom she lost in 2021 after a serious and short illness, and for whom this was her favorite song that she composed.[2][3][4]
South Wind
"Džanum" was recorded primarily as a soundtrack for the movie South Wind: On the Border, but the sad scene in the movie which the song was supposed to accompany, was removed in post-production.[5] The song later became the title track of the
South Wind series.[6][7][8] Coby was the one who gave the inspiration for the use of the Serbian word of Turkish origin, džanum,[9] in the text and the first verses; he also influenced its entire creation.[10] The movie's production team asked Teya Dora to create a modern version of a Russian traditional song for the film, but Coby suggested that a new composition should be made.[1] Rebislav Rebić Rebi directed the official music video.
In April, the single peaked at 6th place on the
Billboard Croatia Songs chart in
Croatia.[24][5] In May 2023, on the list of the 200 most searched songs according to the music search engine Shazam, the song peaked at number 2 globally.[17][25] On May 22, "Džanum" ranked 4th on
Spotify's Global Viral Songs Chart.[26] In June, Teya Dora also became the third Serbian artist to surpass one million monthly listeners on the aforementioned streaming service.[13][27][28]
In the first 6 months, the song reached over 42 million listens on Spotify.[29][30][31] It is also the background track in over 800,000 videos on Instagram and 200,000 on TikTok, later reaching more than one and a half billion views on the same platforms.[5][32][33] It became the first song in the Serbian language to surpass one million likes on
YouTube.[34][35] In September 2023, Teya Dora reached 3 million listeners on Spotify, a new record for a Serbian artist.[36][37] The song also received numerous radio plays on radio stations across the world; notably in
Europe,
Asia,
South America,
Canada,
Australia,
Africa, and the United States.[38] The song has been covered by many artists around the world, including Indian singer
Ayushmann Kurrana, Bulgarian singer
Andrea,
Russian singer Sami, and others.[32][33] The song has over 100 million streams on Spotify.[20][39]
The song was featured in numerous videos regarding the
Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School in
Belgrade due to its sad melody and lyrics, but also in other viral videos with similar topics.[25][40] The song went diamond in
Turkey, platinum in
India and gold in numerous European countries.[4] The song has been translated into 198 languages.[2][3]
The song went viral on
TikTok, generating the internet meme "
Moye moye".[41]