Arsen Dedić

Arsen Dedić was a Croatian singer-songwriter, poet and composer, born Arsenije Dedić on 28 July 1938 in Šibenik. His songs began close to Dalmatian folklore but are best compared with the French chanson, and he also worked as an arranger, conductor and producer. He died in Zagreb on 17 August 2015.

Music came from home: his father Jovan played trumpet, tuba and timpani, and Arsen played flute in the Šibenik town wind band from about the age of thirteen. He enrolled in law at the University of Zagreb in 1957, switched to music in 1959 and graduated in flute from the Music Academy in 1964. In 1959 he wrote, under the pseudonym Igor Krimov, the words of "Mornarev cha-cha-cha", which won the Zagreb festival, and in the early 1960s he sang in the vocal quartets Prima and Melos.

Festivals made him a household name. He won Melodije Jadrana in Split in 1963 with his own "Onaj dan", took the first jury prize there in 1964 with "Kuća pored mora" and the same year introduced "Moderato cantabile" at the Zagreb festival. "Ako si pošla spat" won Pjesma ljeta in 1967, and "Vraćam se" the first jury prize in Split in 1969.

His first LP, Čovjek kao ja, came out in 1969, followed by Arsen 2 (1971), the double album Homo volans (1973), Vraćam se (1975), Dedić-Golob (1977), Rimska ploča (1979), Kantautor (1985), Kino Sloboda (1987), Tihi obrt (1993), Ministarstvo (1997), Na zlu putu (2004) and Rebus (2008). In 1973 he married the singer Gabi Novak, with whom he made Gabi & Arsen in 1980; their son Matija became a jazz pianist. In 2013 he sang "Mi smo lišće s iste grane" with Mišo Kovač.

He wrote music for about 34 feature films, among them Glembajevi, Živa istina, with "Takvim sjajem može sjati" and "Balada o prolaznosti", Vlakom prema jugu and Pont Neuf, and for many TV series and theatre plays. Donator (1989) and Pont Neuf (1997) each won him the Golden Arena for film music. He also published poetry, starting with Brod u boci in 1971.

He won eight Porin awards, among them the lifetime achievement award in 1999, as well as the Prix Jacques Brel (1979) and the Premio Tenco (1982). The playlist here is the official collection of his most beautiful love songs.