Dobrivoje Topalović

Dobrivoje Topalović was a Serbian folk singer, born on 21 September 1944 in the village of Preljina near Čačak. He finished technical school in Čačak and studied for two years at a higher technical school in Belgrade, while singing in a cultural society in Čačak and at village contests for amateur singers. In nearby Mrčajevci the composer Dragan Aleksić heard him sing in a kafana and began working with him.

In 1968 Topalović recorded his first single for Diskos, "Kad bi znala koliko te želim". In 1970 he won the first audience prize at the Ilidža festival with "Nevjerna moja ljubavi", and in 1971 the second audience prize at Vrnjačka Banja with "Na mramornoj steni", which also became the title of his first LP. At a Yugoslav festival in Paris in 1975 he took third prize from the jury for "Što te nema". By 1981 he had released 26 singles, among them a joint single in 1979 with Miroslav Ilić, his close friend and kum.

His breakthrough came in 1981 with Obren Pjevović's song "Ej, da mi je", performed on Hit parada that year. With the composer Dragan Aleksandrić and the lyricist Radmila Todorović Babić he then recorded "Kad bih mog'o i umro bih za te" and "Volim te, jedino moje" (1982), and "Progovori, sliko" and "Hvala ti što postojiš" (1985). His 1986 album Crno vino brought "Crno vino", "Treća jesen zajesenila" and "Ja sam rođen u Srbiji, brale". Later came "Idi, mala, idi" (1987), "Okreni glavu, Milice" (1989), "Tebi se ne žuri" (1991), "Kaješ li se još" (1995) and "Mesečina nad Moravom" (2006).

Over his career he recorded sixteen studio albums and also made recordings for Radio Belgrade. He received the Estrada Award of Serbia in 1983, a lifetime achievement award at the Moravski biseri festival in 2014, the Zlatna lira plaque in 2015 and the lifetime achievement award of the Association of Estrada Musicians of Serbia in 2017.

Dobrivoje Topalović died of lung cancer on 16 June 2020 in Čačak, aged 75, and was buried in his native Preljina. He was married to Mirjana Topalović.