Zdravko ÃÂoliÃÂ (, ; born 30 May 1951) is a Bosnian and Serbian pop singer who is widely considered one of the greatest vocalists and cultural icons of the former Yugoslavia. He has been compared to Paul McCartney and Tom Jones by music critics and the general public. He has garnered fame in Southeastern Europe for his emotionally expressive tenor voice, fluent stage presence and numerous critically and commercially acclaimed albums and singles.
Among his songs, "Ti si mi u krvi" (You're In My Blood), from the eponymous album, is widely considered one of the most popular ballads of ex-Yugoslav music.
Born in Sarajevo, PR Bosnia and Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia to Bosnian Serb parents, police administrator Vladimir ÃÂoliàfrom the VlahoviÃÂi village near Ljubinje (Herzegovina) and homemaker Stana ÃÂoliàfrom Trebinje (East Herzegovina), ÃÂoliàgrew up with a younger brother Dragan. Showing an early interest in sports, the youngster was active as a football goalkeeper in FK à ½eljezniÃÂar's youth system, before switching to track and field where he also excelled in the 100 metres and long jump. At one point he ran a 100-meter dash in 11.3 seconds, and continually placed high at various events he entered (finishing just behind future star Nenad Stekiàat one of them). ÃÂoliàeventually gave up on a career in sports, feeling he lacked the discipline required to compete regularly.
Growing up in Sarajevo, ÃÂoliàattended the Vladimir PeriàValter elementary school in the neighborhood near the adjacent neighborhood of Grbavica where he lived. He also attended music school, studying guitar playing. As a hobby, he took part in various school recitals and also acted in a couple of plays at the Pionirsko pozorià ¡te (youth theatre).
From a very young age, ÃÂoliÃÂ showed an interest in music. With friend Braco IsoviÃÂ, he played guitar at informal and impromptu park gatherings around their neighborhood through which they became known locally as 'ÃÂola i Isa sa Grbavice'. At the time, ÃÂoliÃÂ was trying to emulate pop schlager music that dominated Yugoslav and Italian festivals. His first love was Milena MijatoviÃÂ from Belgrade.
His first significant public singing experience occurred in 1967 while at the Montenegrin coast for the Yugoslav Republic Day celebrations. Staying in the wooden prefab vacation home his family owned in the coastal community of Baoà ¡iÃÂi, seventeen-year-old ÃÂoliàwas persuaded by a friend, Nedim IdrizoviÃÂ, to enter an amateur singing competition in nearby Bijela. The teenager won second prize singing "Lady Madonna" by The Beatles.
Encouraged by the unexpected success, soon after returning to Sarajevo, ÃÂoliàentered his first bandâÂÂa group called 'Mladi i lijepi'. This participation lasted until he graduated high school in 1969 when he decided to move on to the more established Ambasadori, a band whose two incarnations ÃÂoliàwould end up staying with for the next two and a half years.
When ÃÂoliÃÂ joined them, Ambasadori employed an unusual setup: being essentially a military cover band as all the musicians, except for bandleader Slobodan VujoviÃÂ, were Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) ranked officers. Their repertoire centered around the 1960s rhythm & blues (Chicago, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, etc.) along with obligatory Yugoslav hits of the day and years past, and finally even a few original numbers written by the bandmembers thrown into the mix. Over time, the group started getting more gig offers, which presented a problem since its army part was not available for many of them, and those offers had to be declined.
Seeing their opportunities limited by the strange situation, VujoviÃÂ and ÃÂoliÃÂ decided to step out and form Novi ambasadori in 1970, bringing in drummer Perica StojanoviÃÂ, organist Vlado PravdiÃÂ, saxophonist Lale StefanoviÃÂ, and bassist Zlatko Hold. With the almost all-new lineup, the band also expanded its repertoire so that in addition to R&B they now also played covers of Led Zeppelin, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and others. In the summer of 1970, Novi ambasadori scored a month-long gig with Indexi in Dubrovnik, which was their first tour-like experience.
Next step was competing at the 1971 annual festival in Sarajevo where they finished in 7th place with a song "PlaÃÂem za tvojim usnama" that songwriter Zdenko Runjiàclaimed to have composed and officially signed his name under, even though it was a blatant rip-off of The Tremeloes' "Suddenly You Love Me" (which is a cover of Riccardo Del Turco's "Uno tranquillo" ). No one from the festival noticed this plagiarism and the band avoided the controversy. The song was even released on a 7-inch single "PlaÃÂem za tvojim usnama" / "Zapjevaj" by Beograd Disk and sold surprisingly well. The performance at Vaà ¡ à ¡lager sezone was also significant since it marked the band's first television appearance, exposing them to a much larger audience. One of the people in that TV audience was Kornelije KovaÃÂ, an already influential and established figure in Yugoslav music circles, who immediately was intrigued by ÃÂoliÃÂ's "clean tenor and good stage presence".
ÃÂoliÃÂ was soon offered a "bench role" with Indexi, to fill in for their singer Davorin PopoviÃÂ, and even performed with them a couple of times.
In the meantime, during the summer of 1971, ÃÂoliÃÂ finally met face to face with Kornelije KovaÃÂ who came to see ÃÂoliÃÂ play in Mostar and invited him to join his band Korni Grupa as a replacement to their departed singer Dado TopiÃÂ.
On 10 September 1971, twenty-year-old ÃÂoliàleft his hometown and moved to the capital Belgrade to join his new band. However, his stint with Korni grupa ultimately proved to be very short and largely unsuccessful as he never meshed well enough with the rest of the group musically, finding it hard to fit into their progressive rock style. He recorded three tracks with them, "Kukavica, "Gospa Mica gazdarica", and "Pogledaj u nebo", all of which were released on the 7-inch single by PGP-RTB. Track "Gospa Mica gazdarica" managed to create minor controversy due to the slightly risque lyrics written from the perspective of a young man imploring his older female landlord to allow him into her bedâÂÂa nod to ÃÂoliÃÂ's life at the time since he was living away from home in sublet apartments. Due to numerous complaints, the song was taken off radio playlists.
Soon, however, ÃÂoliÃÂ and KovaÃÂ agreed that it would be better for ÃÂoliÃÂ to go solo. Only six months after his arrival to Belgrade, he returned to Sarajevo determined to give his solo career a try.
On 15 April 1972 ÃÂoliÃÂ's first solo move was taking part in the competitive festival in Sarajevo. He won the third audience prize as well as the interpretation award with Kemal Monteno written song "SinoÃÂ nisi bila tu" that was originally meant to be sung by Josipa Lisac who opted out at the last moment.
Right away, under KovaÃÂ's guidance ÃÂoliàmanaged to establish a fair amount of prominence as a solo actâÂÂand on 20 May 1972 the two appeared as guests on the very popular TV Belgrade variety show hosted by Milena Draviàand Dragan NikoliÃÂ. The same year, ÃÂoliàmade further appearances at the Split Festival (with song "Stara pjesma"), Prià ¡tina festival, and Skopje Festival (with song "Moj bol"), before embarking on a tour of Soviet Union together with Indexi, Bisera VeletanliÃÂ, Sabahudin Kurt, and Sabina Vareà ¡anoviÃÂ.
Then came the first big break that launched him on the road to stardom. By winning at the Opatija festival with the song "Gori vatra" written by Kemal Monteno, ÃÂoliÃÂ got to represent SFR Yugoslavia at the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest on 7 April 1973 in Luxembourg City. The song placed poorly but became a well-respected hit at home.
Riding the wave of exposure the Eurovision appearance afforded him, ÃÂoliàcontinued entering competitive festivals throughout SFR Yugoslavia over the next two years with plenty of success. At Hit parada festival in Belgrade on 23 November 1974, he won with the song "Ona spava", composed and written by Kornelije KovaÃÂ. The following year, ÃÂoliàbagged a few more festival wins with KovaÃÂ's songsâÂÂBeogradsko proleÃÂe with "April u Beogradu", and Vaà ¡ à ¡lager sezone with "Zvao sam je Emili". Other songs he performed at various festivals in those years were "Bling blinge blinge bling" (1973 Vaà ¡ à ¡lager sezone, composed by Zdenko RunjiÃÂ), "Ljubav je samo rijeÃÂ" (1974 Beogradsko proleÃÂe, composed by Vojkan BorisavljeviÃÂ), and "Zelena si rijeka bila" (1974 Vaà ¡ à ¡lager sezone, composed by Kemal Monteno).
Around the same time, he also signed a deal with the German arm of WEA record label and did two singles for that market. German producers thought that his name was too difficult to pronounce for their consumers so they marketed him as Dravco. Soon, however, ÃÂoliÃÂ decided not to pursue his options there given the lack of enthusiasm for his music there.
His first solo album was Ti i ja (You and I), released in 1975 by Jugoton. Closely overseen by Kornelije KovaÃÂ, the album brought ÃÂoliàmore hits like "Vagabund", "Igraà ¡ se vatrom", and "Loà ¡e vino" (written by Arsen Dediàand Goran BregoviÃÂ). Cover sleeve was done by Dragan S. StefanoviÃÂ, another collaborator who would remain with ÃÂoliàfor years to come. ÃÂoliÃÂ's image especially appealed to girls and women, something that would remain a staple of his entire career. The same year, cashing in on his sudden popularity upswing, PGP RTB released a compilation of his festival singles under the name Zdravko ÃÂoliÃÂ.
Despite, achieving great prominence already, ÃÂoliÃÂ continued appearing at the occasional festival such as the Zagreb one in 1976 where he surprisingly finished in fourth place singing "Ti si bila, uvijek bila". At the end of that year, he went on a Yugoslavia-wide tour with Indexi. After the Belgrade concert, the measure of his sudden fame was on public display during autograph-signing at the Jugoton store as the cordon of girls rushed the store, breaking a window glass in an attempt to get closer to him.
The next year, 1977, he did the festival circuit for the last time, first in Zagreb with "à ½ivià ¡ u oblacima", followed by an appearance at the Festival of Patriotic Songs also in Zagreb, where he performed . That song was soon released on a 7-inch and sold 300,000 copies.
His second album, Ako priÃÂeà ¡ blià ¾e (If You Come Closer), released later that year, was even more successful, creating mass hysteria among girls for his music. The copies were extremely sought-after, as 50,000 sold in the first two weeks alone. The album contained some of his best-known and liked songs such as "Glavo luda", "Zagrli me", "JuÃÂe joà ¡", "Pjevam danju, pjevam noÃÂu", "Jedna zima sa Kristinom", and "Produà ¾i dalje".
On 1 April 1978, he started an ambitious tour of SFR Yugoslavia with Lokice Dance Group in support of the album that had already sold 150,000 copies. ÃÂoliàalso started to play the guitar occasionally on stage. PutujuÃÂi zemljotres (Traveling Earthquake Tour) produced and organized by Maksa ÃÂatoviàmoved all over the country, soon becoming a phenomenon the likes of which the country had not seen before. The scenes of screaming girls rushing the stage were repeated in city after city. The tour's climax took place in Belgrade at Red Star FC stadium on 5 September 1978 with 70,000 people in attendance even though ÃÂoliàalready played two sold-out shows in Belgrade a few months earlier on 4 and 8 April at Hala Pionir. Supporting ÃÂoliàon stage that night were Chris Nicholls on keyboards and Dado Topiàon bass guitar, with old favorites Kornelije KovaÃÂ, Arsen DediÃÂ, Kemal Monteno, Josip BoÃÂek, Trio Strune, and RTV Belgrade singing quintet appearing as guests. ÃÂoliàand the great tour essentially became a cultural phenomenon transcending musical boundaries such that in the lead-up to the big Belgrade concert journalist Duà ¡an Savkoviàand film director Jovan Ristiàdecided to make a movie about ÃÂoliÃÂ. Savkoviàwrote a rudimentary screenplay, but the movie ended up being a 90-minute feature documentary titled Pjevam danju, pjevam noÃÂu (trans. "I sing during the day, I sing at night") that follows ÃÂoliàfrom the Belgrade concert onwards and looks back on his career up to that point. Two days after the Belgrade concert, ÃÂoliàwas in his hometown Sarajevo at Koà ¡evo Stadium for the tour's grand finale; however, the rain interrupted much of the concert. By the end of its promotion cycle, the album sold more than 700,000 copies and with later re-releases during the 1990s went over the million mark.
ÃÂoliàalso got the attention of Ziggy Loch, director of German WEA, who immediately after watching the Belgrade concert wanted to renew his contract. Singles with songs "Jedina" and "Zagrli me" were released for the German market as well as the disco single "I'm Not a Robot Man" / "Light Me". However, ÃÂoliàrefused to move to Germany for the second time, and instead on 14 November 1978 went to serve his mandatory Yugoslav Army stint. Twenty-seven years of age at the time, ÃÂoliàwas assigned to a unit in Valjevo, before getting transferred to Belgrade, and finally Poà ¾arevac. After serving 10 months, he got out of the military service on 14 September 1979.
Upon his return from the army, ÃÂoliàstarted work on his third albumâÂÂwhich came out in the spring of 1980, entitled Zbog tebe; it brought more hits as ÃÂola further secured his position of the most popular pop performer in Yugoslavia.
In 1984, ÃÂoliÃÂ moved from his hometown Sarajevo to Ljubljana where he started a private business with Goran BregoviÃÂ through their Kamarad label. He then lived in Zagreb for five years. 1988 saw his hit "Jastreb". In 1989, he moved back to Belgrade.
After his 1990 album "Da ti kaà ¾em à ¡ta mi je", ÃÂoliàdidn't make another album until late 1997, when he embarked on a comeback with Komuna label album Kad bi moja bila, and regained much of his popularity. The following year, he had nine sold-out concerts at Sava Centar.
In October 2005, ÃÂoliÃÂ performed two concerts at the Belgrade Arena.
ÃÂoliÃÂ voiced Shelby Forthright (originally played by Fred Willard) in the Bosnian dub of the acclaimed 2008 Pixar release WALL-E.
In 2010, he had a big concert on the Asim FerhatoviàHase Stadium in Sarajevo, during his Kad pogledaà ¡ me preko ramena tour, in front of over 60,000 people. On 25 June 2011, he had the biggest concert of his career: on Uà ¡ÃÂe, in Belgrade, with over 100,000 visitors. His biggest concert to date celebrated his 40-year career milestone.
At the outbreak of the Bosnian War, ÃÂoliÃÂ moved to Belgrade, and has lived there ever since. He graduated from the School of Economics and Business at the University of Sarajevo. He is married to Aleksandra AleksiÃÂ and has two daughters.