Čuki

Čuki are a Slovenian band who move between pop, comedy songs and narodnozabavna (folk-pop) music. The group began in 1989, founded by Jože Potrebuješ and Marko Vozelj, who had met during their military service, together with Vinko Cankar and Marjan Malovrh, who had already played together now and then. Their first gig, on 11 November 1988 at the Vrtnar inn in Podlipa, was played as a trio, and Vozelj joined a year later.

In 1990 they released their first cassette, Na licu bela solza, and in 1991 Rdeča mašna; both reached gold sales. The breakthrough came in 1992 with "Krokodilčki", the song for which they shot their first music video, and the cassette of the same name sold some 82,000 copies. Hits such as "Vsepovsod ljubezen", "Ta vlak", "Poletna" and "Hugo" followed, and in 1994 they filmed "Zanzibar" over three days at the Viba film studio, one of the most expensive Slovenian music videos of its time. In 1995 came "Kavbojci in Indijanci", whose one-take video was directed by Branko Đurić - Đuro. Čuki twice won the Viktor award for the most popular musical act, for 1993 and 1995.

Festivals played their part too. At Melodije morja in sonca they won the award for best newcomer with "Svetilnik ljubezni" in 1991 and first place with "Črne oči" in 1993, and at the Slovenska polka in valček festival they won in 2000 with "Kraljestvo naše sreče". In 2009 they took part in EMA with "Mal' naprej pa mal' nazaj" and finished seventh.

The line-up has changed over the years. Keyboard player Marjan Malovrh left in 1998 and was replaced by Potrebuješ's cousin Matjaž Končan; Marko Vozelj went solo in 2008 and Jernej Tozon took his place; and when bassist Vinko Cankar retired in 2017, Miha Novak joined. The band moved from ZKP RTV Slovenija to Dallas Records and later PTB, with albums such as Zobar (1997), Hubba Bubba (2005), Ena po domače (2005), Mi gremo pa na morje (2006) and Pancer Tanc (2007).

Children know them from the TV Slovenija programme Ribič Pepe, whose songs they collected on an album in 2011. In 2018 they marked 30 years with a jubilee concert in the Gallus Hall of Cankarjev dom, joined by guests including Modrijani, Jan Plestenjak, Alfi Nipič and Vili Resnik. The album Punca, drž' se stran od mene! followed in 2019.

Čuki have kept releasing songs since: "Avtobus" in 2022, the ballad "Na pol poti do sonca" in 2023, "Na pumpo" with the ensemble Stil in 2024 and "Tišlarski pozdrav" in 2025, sung with Eva Potrebuješ, the daughter of band leader Jože Potrebuješ.