Bele vrane

Bele vrane (The White Crows) were a Slovenian vocal-instrumental group from Ljubljana that played pop and beat music from the mid-1960s until 1973. Inspired by The Mamas & the Papas, they stood out for their polyphonic singing, and they are counted among the most popular Yugoslav bands of the 1960s, with a pioneering role on the Yugoslav rock scene.

The first line-up had Sonja Pahor and Doca Marolt on vocals, Bor Gostiša on guitar, Tadej Hrušovar on vocals and guitar, Đuro Penzeš on bass, Vanja Repinc on organ and Bojan Bračko on drums. The best-known line-up formed at the end of 1967, when the singer Ditka Haberl and the organist Ivo Umek joined. Tatjana Dremelj also sang with the group, and later members included the guitarist Iztok Pečar and the drummer Mišo Gregorin.

Their rise was fast. In December 1967 they won wide attention on the Najfotogeničnija Slovenka contest, and in 1968 they came first among 21 bands at the first Slovenian Guitar Festival. At Slovenska popevka 1968 "Presenečenja" won the first prize of both the audience and the expert jury, plus the jury prize for the best debutants, and it became a hit across the country. The same year "Mesto mladih" took first prize at the Opatija festival, one of the first rock wins at a Yugoslav pop festival.

In 1969 they played mostly in Serbia, after a much-noticed concert at the Belgrade Youth Center late in 1968, and in the summer they performed in Trieste as Aquile Bianche. They won the Subotica Youth Festival with "Jesen na njenom dlanu", and at Slovenska popevka the audience gave "Maček v žaklju" first prize and "Na vrhu nebotičnika" third. In 1970 "Mini maxi" won the audience prize again.

Besides the EPs Presenečenja (1968) and Mesto mladih (1969), they released singles such as "Veseli vrtuljak", "Skrivnostna pesem" and "Kam si namenjen", a version of "Where Are You Going to My Love", and in 1971 a cassette-only album. Their last Slovenska popevka song, "Letalovlak" in 1973, took the third audience prize, and the group ended soon after.

In 1974 Ditka Haberl and Tadej Hrušovar formed Pepel in kri, who represented Yugoslavia at Eurovision in 1975. Hrušovar went on to write several hundred songs and died on 5 December 2020. The songs of Bele vrane lived on: U' Redu covered "Na vrhu nebotičnika" in 1992 and Let 3 "Maček v žaklju" in 2000.