Anžej Dežan

Anžej Dežan is a Slovenian pop singer, born on 17 June 1987, who grew up in Šentjur near Celje and finished the First Grammar School in Celje. His style runs from pop and dance to popevka and chanson. He started very young: at ten he won the television show Karaoke, and in 1998 his song "Povej, zakaj" took first prize on Radio Celje's Full Cool Demo Top, after which he recorded an album called Cigutke.

From 2002 he took singing lessons in Celje with Jasmina Maček and from 2003 in Maribor with Dada Kladnik. A year and a half later he entered Bitka talentov, the talent contest of the RTV Slovenija show Spet doma, and reached the final, where he finished second to Omar Naber. The songwriters Urša and Matjaž Vlašič and Boštjan Grabnar became his creative team, and together they released his first single, "C'est la vie", which was a favourite on Slovenian radio.

In February 2005 he sang backing vocals for Nuša Derenda at EMA. That summer he appeared at Melodije morja in sonca with "Vroče", which won the expert jury's award for the best song overall. In January 2006 he won EMA with "Plan B", with 12 points from the jury and 14 from the viewers, ahead of Saša Lendero. On 18 May 2006 he represented Slovenia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens with the English version, "Mr. Nobody", and finished 16th in the semi-final, which was not enough for the final. The song was also recorded in Serbian as "Srce od kristala".

"Kot Romeo in Julija" followed in 2006, and in 2007 he sang "Zarja" at the Festival of Slovenian Chanson. At Slovenska popevka 2008 "Šopek maka" finished fourth but won the expert jury's award for the best song overall and the award for the best interpretation; "Le objemi me" came out in 2009.

Alongside singing he studied philosophy at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana and then fashion journalism in London, and he built a career as a television and radio presenter and a society reporter, on shows such as Jasno in glasno. Since his Popevka win he has given more of his time to journalism than to singing.