Danijel Popović

Danijel Popović, born Milan Popović on 29 October 1955 in Titograd, today Podgorica, is a Montenegrin-Croatian pop singer who often performs simply as Daniel. His father, Filip M. Popović, was a Montenegrin paediatrician and his mother a Belgian pianist. Besides singing he plays guitar, composes, arranges and writes lyrics.

He started early: as a debutant at the Titograd Spring festival in 1972 he won first prize for interpretation and for his own composition, "Plači". He sang at Jajce in 1972 and Maglaj in 1973, represented Montenegro at Opatija in 1975 and returned there in 1976 with the group Entuzijasti and "Kotorske ulice", his first single. For a short time he stood in as guitarist in Srebrna krila. In Zagreb he played with the band Grešnici in the early 1980s, toured as guitarist and backing singer for Meri Cetinić, worked as a studio musician, and in 1982 released his first album, Bio sam naivan, on Jugoton.

In 1983, for TV Zagreb, he won the Yugoslav selection with "Džuli", beating the favourite, Lepa Brena. At the Eurovision Song Contest in Munich he finished fourth with 125 points, equalling Lola Novaković's 1962 result as the best Yugoslav placing at the time. The English version, "Julie", reached number two in Austria, three in the Netherlands, six in Switzerland, nine in Norway and thirteen in Germany. He also sang on Lepa Brena's hit "Jugoslovenka".

His albums of the 1980s include Tina i Marina (1985, platinum), Dušu je moju uzela (1986, gold) and Slomljeno srce (1987, platinum), and other hits were "Đeni nosi kečke", "Loli me voli" and "Znam da ti si ta". He sang at the Split festival in 1984 and 1986 and appeared in the film Hajdemo se voljeti 2 (1989). At Jugovizija 1991 he came second for Croatia with "Daj obuci levisice", two points behind Bebi Dol's "Brazil", and he took part in the Croatian Band Aid project that year.

In the 1990s he opened a studio in Zagreb and produced other artists, among them Nives Celzijus, and wrote Minea's "Good Boy" for Croatia's 1995 Eurovision selection. Danijel Popović moved back to Montenegro in 2005, and his Munich performance was included in the Eurovision 50th-anniversary show "Congratulations" that year. In 2007 he entered Croatia's Dora with his son Sebastian and daughter Isabella, but did not reach the final. His latest studio album is Fantazija.