Alen Vitasović

Alen Vitasović is a Croatian pop singer, born on 5 July 1968 in Pula. With his songs he brought the Chakavian speech of Istria to a nationwide pop audience, singing about his region in its own dialect.

Music started early. At five he was already drawn to the accordion, and at twelve, in 1980, he formed his first band. He finished the secondary music school in Pula, studying saxophone and piano, and played in Istrian bands in the tourist towns as lead singer, keyboard player and saxophonist, then in bands in Croatia, Slovenia and around Europe, picking up guitar, flute and drums along the way. For two years he worked as a music editor at the Pula station of Croatian Radio, where he met the songwriter Livio Morosin.

That meeting started his professional career. In 1993 came "Ne moren bez nje", and he soon became one of the most popular singers in Croatia, touring with his own band Superfree through Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Switzerland and the United States, with solo concerts in the Lisinski hall and the Pula Arena. He won Melodije hrvatskog Jadrana in Split in 1995, the Arenafest in Pula three years running from 1994 to 1996, and festivals in Zadar, Vodice and Korčula. In 1995 he was nominated for the Porin award in five categories and won best new artist, and in 1997 he received the Order of Danica Hrvatska with the face of Marko Marulić for his contribution to Croatian culture.

His albums include Gušti su gušti (1994), Svi festivali (1995), Come va? (1997), Ja ne gren (2000), Grih (2003) and Tone i pretelji (2003), and in under eight years he sold about 130,000 records. He arranges and produces most of his songs himself and has sung six times at Dora, the Croatian Eurovision selection. In 2006 he tried acting, as the scheming manager Karlo Petković in the soap opera Zabranjena ljubav.

He has sung duets with Crvena jabuka, Šajeta, Hari Rončević and Bruno Krajcar, and "Dobar dan" with Tomislav Goluban. With his father, brother and uncle he has also sung Istrian folk songs six times at the Etnofest in Neum. Alen Vitasović's playlist here is his Topic channel, with "Gušti su gušti", "Come va?", "Daghe oio", "Ja sam Istrian" and his newest songs.