Danijela Martinović

Danijela Martinović, known on stage simply as Danijela, is a Croatian pop singer born on 15 July 1971 in Split. She began singing at an early age, and her sister Izabela also made music, with the Split pop rock band Stijene. Danijela first caught the public's attention at the 1989 Split Festival with the song "Zumbuli".

Her big break came in early 1991, when she replaced Ljiljana Nikolovska as the singer of Magazin. She recorded three albums with the band, Da mi te zaljubit' u mene (1991), Došlo vrijeme (1993) and Simpatija (1994), and in 1995 Magazin and the opera singer Lidija Horvat-Dunjko represented Croatia at Eurovision with "Nostalgija", finishing sixth of 23 with 91 points.

In 1996 she left Magazin for a solo career, and Jelena Rozga took her place. Her first solo album, Zovem te ja, came out that year. In 1998 she won Dora with the ballad "Neka mi ne svane", written with Tonči Huljić, and represented Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Birmingham, where she finished fifth of 25 with 131 points. That year she also won the Večernjakova ruža as singer of the year, and Zovem te ja and To malo ljubavi were both nominated for the Porin.

More albums followed: I po svjetlu i po mraku (1999), Pleši sa mnom (2001), the Christmas album Božić s Danijelom (2003), Oaza (2005), Canta y baila con Danijela (2006), Unikat (2011) and Neopisivo (2020). Her well-known songs include "Sve što srce poželi", "Da je slađe zaspati", "Dobro je" and "Pleši sa mnom", and she has sung duets with Kemal Monteno ("Ovako ne mogu dalje") and Halid Bešlić ("Zarobljenik uspomena").

Danijela Martinović has kept returning to the Split Festival: with "Brodolom" she won the third audience prize in 2012, and with "Cappuccino" the award for best stage performance in 2013. In 2023 "Ono nešto", with Marko Škugor, won a Cesarica as hit of the month, and in 2024 she released "Početak" with Gabi Novak and Matija Dedić. From 1999 to 2021 she was the partner of the singer Petar Grašo.