Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson Made An Honorary Citizen Of Sarajevo

In honor of the historical gig his band played there during the 1994 siege of the city, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson was made an honorary citizen of Sarajevo during a ceremony on the liberation of the city in 1945.

The singer's famous show, which was the subject of the documentary Scream For Me Sarajevo, took place during the 1992-5 war in Bosnia, a conflict that cost the country over 13,000 lives. The concert was lauded as bringing hope to a wartorn city desperately trying to survive an unfathomable attack.

According to AP, Mayor Abdullah Skaka awarded Bruce with his citizenship at a ceremony in Sarajevo City Hall.

“The arrival of Mr. Dickinson in Sarajevo in 1994 was one of those moments that made us in Sarajevo realize that we will survive, that the city of Sarajevo will survive, that Bosnia-Herzegovina will survive," says Mayor Skaka.

“It’s a great honor to be given the honorary citizenship of Sarajevo," said Bruce. "In a world where things only last for about five seconds on social media ... people are still remembering it. That’s really quite something. This is a brilliant day, a lovely day and it’s great to be back.”

According to Scream For Me Sarajevo, the invitation to play came from Major Martin Morris, a member of the UN peacekeeping force based in the city, whose idea it was to try and provide the city’s teenagers with brief respite from the conflict that had surrounded them for two years, and an escape from the atrocities they’d already witnessed.

“Sarajevo was a city under siege, a siege that lasted for longer than the siege of Stalingrad. A siege that saw the indiscriminate murder systematically of men, women and children by its own occupants. There was genocide on a massive scale. There was ethnic cleansing,” explained Bruce.

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