Đorđe Marjanović

Đorđe Marjanović was a Serbian and Yugoslav singer, one of the first pop stars of the country. He was born on 30 October 1931 in Kučevo, went to high school in Požarevac and in 1950 began studying pharmacy in Belgrade, which he never finished.

He started in 1954 at an amateur audition organised by the Association of Jazz Musicians of Serbia, and his breakthrough came at a concert in Niš in 1958. "Zvižduk u 8", which he sang from late 1957, became his signature song and in 1961 the title of a comedy film he starred in. His first album, Muzika za igru, came out on PGP-RTB in 1959. On stage he was known for his theatrical performances, often taking the microphone down into the audience. In March 1961 a dispute at the Zlatni mikrofon festival brought a large crowd of his fans onto the streets of Belgrade.

After his army service he won three awards at the Opatija festival with "Prodavac novina" and "Pesma raznosača mleka". "Stjuardesa" was his song at the 1962 Belgrade Spring festival, the same year as the album Mustafa, and his version of Édith Piaf's "Milord" and "Medison u Meksiko" were further hits. He sang several times at Sanremo in the 1960s.

He first toured the Soviet Union in 1963 and became hugely popular there; at his peak he gave fifteen concerts in a row at Lenin Stadium in Moscow, and in 1968 he was made an honorary member of the Komsomol. Zorana was among the guests on his last Soviet tour. Hvala vam, prijatelji came out in 1979.

In 1990 he suffered a stroke on stage during a Lepa Brena concert in Melbourne, lost much of his speech and retired. He received the Order of Labour with Silver Wreath (1972), the Order of Friendship of Peoples (1990) and lifetime awards from Slavianski Bazaar (1996) and Sunčane skale (2000). He died in Belgrade on 15 May 2021, aged 89, and was buried in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens; he was posthumously given the Order of Karađorđe's Star.