Berta Ambrož

Berta Ambrož was a Slovenian pop singer and the first singer from Slovenia at the Eurovision Song Contest. She was born on 29 October 1944 in Stražišče near Kranj, into a musical family; her brother Peter Ambrož was a long-time member of the Slovenski oktet. She died on 1 July 2003 in Ljubljana.

A typist by profession, she sang at first as a hobby. Her first public performance was on 25 May 1965 at the Kino Center in Kranj, and she began recording for the radio and television, with Jože Privšek as her main mentor. That same year she made her debut at Slovenska popevka with Jure Robežnik's "Mali vragec v očeh" and Privšek's "Luči Ljubljane", which won third place in the audience vote. At the Opatija festival she reached the final evening with Boris Kovačič's "Pesem zapoj mi nocoj", alternating with Majda Sepe.

In 1966 she represented Yugoslavia at Eurovision in Luxembourg with "Brez besed", music by Mojmir Sepe and words by Elza Budau. It was the first song ever sung in Slovene at the contest, and it finished seventh with nine points. The Dutch singer Willeke Alberti recorded it in English as "Without Words" in 1967, it was also adapted into Norwegian and Danish, and in 1973 some accused the Spanish Eurovision song "Eres tú" of being a copy of it.

She kept coming back to the festivals: at Slovenska popevka with "Jokala bom brez solz" and "Poslednja noč ljubezni" in 1966, "Pišeš mi" in 1967, "Veter nosi moj pozdrav" in 1968, "Tivolski pastirček" in 1973 and "Ša-ba-da" in 1974, and at Opatija with "Odtrgala bom zelen list" and "Kadar pride dež" in 1966 and "Kdor seje veter" in 1967. She was among the leading Yugoslav pop singers of her time and had offers from abroad, which she did not accept. Around 1970 she enrolled at the music school in Kranj and studied singing with Vera Majdič and Sabira Hajdarović.

Her hits also include "Ostani še nocoj", "Ladja brez krmarja" and "Tipitipiti", a Slovene version of Orietta Berti's song. In 2007 ZKP RTV Slovenija released the CD Brez besed, with her Slovenian hits and foreign covers.