Eva Braun () is a pop rock band from BeÃÂej, Serbia, notable as one of the most important bands of the Vojvodina pop-rock scene of the 1990s. The band is credited for starting the pop rock revival in FR Yugoslavia of the 1990s which produced other notable acts like Oruà ¾jem Protivu OtmiÃÂara, Kristali and Veliki Prezir.
In 1989, Goran Vasoviàand Petar Dolinka discussed the idea of forming a band. In Spring 1990, the core of the band was formed by the former two and Milan Glavaà ¡ki. The agreement took place in a rented apartment in Novi Sad's Mià ¡e DimitrijeviÃÂa street. The first songs from this period were "KuÃÂa lutaka", "Kao da znam", "Sva tvoja ÃÂutanja" and "Dan pobede". In September, Ljubomir RajiÃÂ, after coming back from the army, joined the band as the fourth member. Naming the band after Eva Braun was proposed by Vasoviàafter viewing a biographical film about Adolf Hitler. The name was both unusual and provocative, which was agreeable to the other members. The first rehearsals took place in November, and the first concert was held in the end of 1991 in a local "DB Klub" in BeÃÂej. The band played both their own songs as well as cover versions of the Beatles, Little Richard, the Byrds, and Idoli songs. Most of 1991 was spent in composing the music that would appear on the debut album.
The debut album Prisluà ¡kivanja (Eavesdroppings) was recorded between February and April 1992 in the "Do Re Mi" studio in Bukovac near Novi Sad. The studio owner and album producer was Predrag PejiàPeÃÂa, a friend of the band members since their beginnings. The recording lasted for about 130 hours on the 8 channel Magnetophon, using rhythm machine instead of drums. At the time of the recording, the band still had not gotten a label. But one of the guests of the "Do Re Mi" studio was MiÃÂa Jakà ¡iÃÂ, owner of the Carlo Records for which Belgrade's Dà ¾a ili Bu had just signed. After some negotiations, the agreement was made with him to release the album. On 5 October 1992, the debut album Prisluà ¡kivanja was released. Only 500 copies of vinyl LPs were printed.
Although the marketing campaign was rather chaotic and unprepared, the album was noticed by some influential people of the music industry, like Gordan PaunoviÃÂ, MomÃÂilo Rajin, Petar JanjatoviÃÂ, Bojan à ½ikiÃÂ, Nebojà ¡a PajkiÃÂ, Tomislav Grujiàand Dinko TucakoviÃÂ, who was the art director of the Museum of Yugoslav Film Archive. Radio B92 also played a great role in promoting Prisluà ¡kivanja. The rest of 1992 the band spent on promoting the album on the medias who were interested in pop and rock music. Eva Braun had no music videos in this period, so TV appearances were only in the form of interviews and lip-synch performances. Few songs from Prisluà ¡kivanja became minor hits such as "VeàviÃÂeno", "Ponekad", "Sva tvoja ÃÂutanja", "Jagodna Polja" and "KuÃÂa lutaka".
In January 1993, MiÃÂa Jakà ¡iàorganized a tour called "Dobri bendovi Vojvodine" (Good Bands of Vojvodina) as a response to then heavily promoted tour "Brzi bendovi Srbije" (Fast Bands of Serbia). A few bands of very different music styles took part and, besides Eva Braun, those were Generacija Bez BuduÃÂnosti, 16x8x23, Gluve KuÃÂke, Instant Karma, Oruà ¾jem Protivu OtmiÃÂara and others. Till the end of February, the tour had included all the major cities of Vojvodina, and the last concert was held in Belgrade's KST. The bands who took part in the tour also recorded a cover of the Clash song London Calling, under the title "Vojvodina zove" (Vojvodina Calling), but the song was never released.
Having finished the "Dobri Bendovi Vojvodine" tour, the band started working on the unplugged concert which was announced for mid-Spring 1993. With a help of Dinko TucakoviÃÂ, the concert was held on 16 April 1993 in the Hall of the Yugoslav Film Archive. The crowd of 200 people enjoyed what is considered the best concert of the band's early career. The concert lasted for two and a half hours, with three encores. The band played own songs as well as some covers. The guests were Sabljar of Dà ¾a ili Bu and violinist Saà ¡a à  tukelja. The whole performance was recorded and, about a month later, released as a live album Unplugged 16.04.1993. Today, the album is considered a rarity, as only 200 audio cassettes were released.
Until the end of the summer, Prisluà ¡kivanja was sold out, and Unplugged was heavily praised. Eva Braun slowly came to popularity. But, the things were not going easy for the band. In Autumn 1993, Carlo Records was closed. Gordan PaunoviÃÂ, the music editor of radio B92 approached the band and offered them to take part in the compilation album Radio Utopia, which was to be released for the occasion of the fifth anniversary of B92. The band chose to do a cover of The Velvet Underground's "Stephanie Says". The song was named "Aljaska" (Alaska), and became one of Eva Braun's greatest hits so far. After this success, the band signed for the new formed B92 record label. During the same year, they recorded two songs to the lyrics of the poet Ljubivoje Rà ¡umoviàfor the children TV show "Fore i fazoni" of TV Novi Sad, and soundtrack for the play Caligula by Albert Camus directed by Ana MiljaniÃÂ. In the meantime, the band was working on their second studio album.
Recording the album Pop Music was very slow and difficult. It started in September 1994 in the "Do Re Mi" studio, which was now relocated to Novi Sad, and was going very slowly. The reasons were numerous: often power cuts, bad and old equipment, etc. The relations within the band were also not as harmonic any more. During the ten months of the recordings, the band members spent only four days together in the studio. The authorship of the album was shared between VasoviÃÂ, Glavaà ¡ki, Dolinka, and, for the first time, Ljubomir RajiÃÂ. The recording was finished in July 1995, and the album was released on 14 December 1995.
The album was promoted in Belgrade's "Plato" club, and one of the guests was Vlada Divljan of Idoli who had just come back from Australia where he lived for years. In February 1996 Eva Braun and Vlada Divljan recorded a cover version of "Hajde, sanjaj me sanjaj", originally released on the Idoli album Odbrana i poslednji dani. The music video for this song was directed by Dinko TucakoviÃÂ. Pop Music was critically acclaimed, and had a large public interest. For the first time, the band had a real hit, the song "Sasvim obiÃÂan dan". The other, minor hits were "Zmajevi", "25. Avgust" and "Sada ne znam gde sam ne znam à ¡ta". For all the songs Relja Mirkoviàhad directed the music videos, and on the videos for "Zmajevi" and "25. Avgust" (recorded on the same day), Petar Dolinka was absent. By that time he had already left the band, but came back later only to do few more concerts on the Pop Music tour.
Internal conflicts between Vasoviàand Glavaà ¡ki were increasing, which soon came to the point of no return. This led to the end of the first line-up of Eva Braun. Although the atmosphere in the band was dark, the band's live performances were still appreciable. The best concerts from this tour were held in Belgrade's clubs REX and SKC and in Novi Sad's Dom Mladih. The concert in SKC held in July 1996 was actually the last concert of the original Eva Barun lineup. The members did not even talk to each other at this point. After the concert, Eva Braun disbanded.
In Autumn 1996, the members of "Zajedno" coalition invited Goran Vasoviàto reform Eva Braun and take part in the coalition's final meeting before the 1996 local elections in Serbia. Vasoviàtook the chance, and called Zvonko Stojkov and SrÃÂan Ljiljak, guitarist and drummer of the local R&B band Specijalno Izdanje. The band was reformed after two days of rehearsals. The new Eva Braun lineup performed three songs at the political meeting in front of the crowd of 100,000 people. Duà ¡an à  evarliÃÂ, the bassist of the Novi Sad's band Minstrelm joined Eva Braun a few weeks later.
In late 1996, Eva Braun signed for a new record label, Automatik Records from Belgrade. The reissue of Prisluà ¡kivanja was released with a bonus track "Hajde, sanjaj me sanjaj". In the meantime, the new line-up recorded two new songs at the "Drum" studio in Novi BeÃÂej: "Zvià ¾di Srbija" (Serbia Whistles, a cover of The Beach Boys' "Surfin' U.S.A.") and "Vrteà ¡ka", composed by Vasoviàand Tomislav Grujiàof B92. A music video for "Vrteà ¡ka" was also made. This led to some attention of the media and a series of concerts was made in 1997 with a good reception. In just four months period, between February and May 1997, the new line-up held more concerts than the original one had done in their whole career.
As the new line-up showed good results, Goran Vasoviàdecided to continue the band's activity. In the Summer of 1997, the band started to prepare their third studio album. The recording took place at the "M" studio in Novi Sad and "O" studio in Belgrade during the Winter and Spring. The producer was Mirko VukomanoviÃÂ, who previously produced highly acclaimed album [BarbieCue by Zrenjanin band Oruà ¾jem Protivu OtmiÃÂara. Although he left the band, Petar Dolinka continued to write songs for Eva Braun together with VasoviÃÂ. Two of them wrote all the songs for the new album except for one cover. The guests on the album were Aleksandra Kovaàon the song "Santa Fe", actor Sergej Trifunoviàon the cover of Film's "Odvedi me iz ovog grada" and Tina Milivojeviàas a backing vocalist on "Mala prodavnica uà ¾asa" and "Ja to radim samo kad sam sam".
In the early June 1997, the single "Lavirint" was released accompanied by the two different music videos, directed by Aca IliÃÂ, announcing the new album Heart Core. The album contained twelve songs of modern pop music, and is considered by Vasoviàto be the best album of the band's career. But, although the band expected Heart Core to be their magnum opus, the critical reception was mixed. The music video was filmed for the song "Mala prodavnica uà ¾asa", directed by Srdan GoluboviÃÂ. After the series of concerts, interviews and intensive promotion, the album found its way as one of the best selling albums of the year 1998 in FR Yugoslavia.
In 1998 VasoviÃÂ, helped by à ½eljko RakoÃÂeviàKole, a Serb from Los Angeles, succeeded to make Eva Braun part of the International Pop Overthrow festival in Los Angeles. Eva Braun's performance on the festival was well received, and the band gained the opportunity to record an album for the North American market. Having returned home, the band recorded The Nowhere Land in 1999, consisting mostly of the old Eva Braun songs with lyrics in English language. The lyrics adaptations were done by Goran Obradoviàof Popcycle. The band changed the name for the U.S. market to Viva Brown, which was felt to be more politically correct.
In 2000, Automatik Records released the compilation album First and Last, which consisted of twenty-two songs featuring the complete albums PrisluÃÂkivanja and The Nowhere Land and the singles "Hajde sanjaj me sanjaj" and "Vrteà ¡ka". The music video for "Cabaret Noire" (originally from The Nowhere Land) was filmed. The band then played a concert in Belgrade's "Saund", accompanied by Saà ¡a "Dà ¾ule" Dà ¾uklevski who became the band's fifth member. After few more concerts in Serbia, Eva Braun started the work on their most ambitious project so far, an album entitled Vremenske zone (Time Zones). Dolinka and Vasoviàapproached this album as prominent. The album was later renamed Everest, which is the original title of The Beatles' Abbey Road. The album was released by B92 in 2001, a year after the work had started. The first single released was "Meg Ryan Blues" accompanied by a music video, directed by Academy Award-nominated director Stefan ArsenijeviÃÂ. After the album's release, the farewell concert was held in Belgrade's REX club, as Vasoviàdecided to quit performing live. Eva Braun went on hiatus.
After four years of inactivity, Eva Braun was reformed in 2007 in the original line-up (VasoviÃÂ, Dolinka, Glavaà ¡ki, RajiÃÂ), with the addition of Goran Obradoviàon bass guitar, and made a comeback concert in BeÃÂej the same year. During 2008, Label Star released a compilation album Off the Record which contained unreleased and demo recordings from the 1997-2006 period. The album was available for free download on the record label official site. The album featured a new song, "Evergrin" ("Evergreen"), also released as a single, reaching the third position on the B92 annual chart for 2008. In the same year, the band made several well received concerts in Belgrade's SKC, at EXIT festival in Novi Sad and Nisomnia festival in Nià ¡.
In 2008, the band started preparing a new studio album with the work title Nesanica (Insomnia). The album, retitled Playback, recorded at the Novi Sad Do-re-mi studio and produced by PeÃÂa PejiÃÂ, would feature selected recordings from about thirty songs the band had recorded during the sessions for the album. On 28 June 2010, the first single "U izgnanstvu" became available for free download at the B92 records official site. On 3 February 2011, the band released yet another single for free download, the song "Okreni moj broj" ("Dial My Number"). In May, the band released the single "Istra" ("Istria") for free download through Exit festival official website. Playback album was finally released digitally on 1 June 2011. In November, the band released the video for the song "Primenjena ljubav" ("Applied Love"), which featured guest appearance by Veliki Prezir frontman Vladimir KolariÃÂ.
On 30 June 2012, Eva Braun performed on the last evening of the first Belgrade Calling festival. On 15 December, the band celebrated twenty years since the release of their debut album with a concert in Belgrade's Dom omladine. On the concert, the band performed Prisluà ¡kivanja in its entirety. In January 2013, the band released the video for the song "Sve à ¡to gubià ¡ sam ja" ("All that You're Losing Is Me") from Playback. The video was directed by Aleksandar MariÃÂ, who used some of the material recorded for the documentary Route 66: Glavna ulica Amerike (Route 66: America's Main Street) to make the video, which was his gift to the band.
In September 2014, the band released the single "Dan posle" ("The Day After"), announcing their new EP. In June 2015, the band released the single "Rikoà ¡et" ("Ricochet"), and in November 2015 the single "Kao kià ¡na kap" ("Like a Drop of Rain").
On 7 September 2017, the band held a sold-out concert in Belgrade Youth Centre. The concert featured numerous guests: the bands NiÃÂim Izazvan and Magic Bush, ElektriÃÂni Orgazam frontman SrÃÂan Gojkovià"Gile", Disciplina KiÃÂme frontman Duà ¡an Kojià"Koja", Veliki Prezir frontman Vladimir Kolarià"Kole", Darkwood Dub bass guitarist Miodrag "Miki" RistiÃÂ, Kristali frontman Dejan Gvozden, Autopark members Ognjenka LakiÃÂeviàand Nikola BerÃÂekom and actor Sergej TrifunoviÃÂ. All the funds raised from the concert were dedicated to improvement of treatment and curing of Duchenne muscular dystrophy in Serbia. In 2016, director Robert Bukarica recorded a documentary film about the band entitled The Story of Eva Braun.
The album Prisluà ¡kivanja was polled in 1998 as 75th on the list of 100 greatest Yugoslav popular music albums in the book ' (YU 100: The Best albums of Yugoslav pop and rock music).
In 2006, the song "Sasvim obiÃÂan dan" was ranked No. 58 on the B92 Top 100 Domestic Songs list.
The lyrics of 12 songs by the band were featured in Petar JanjatoviÃÂ's book ' (Songs of Brotherhood, Childhood & Offspring: Anthology of Ex YU Rock Poetry 1967 - 2007).