Dubrovački trubaduri

Dubrovački trubaduri were a Croatian vocal and instrumental group, founded in Dubrovnik in 1961 by Đelo Jusić. They are on Muzika-Balkan as a band of their native Dubrovnik, where they were formed and where their story began. Their mix of pop, Dalmatian folk tunes and their own style, and stage shows often in medieval and Renaissance costume, made them very popular in Yugoslavia in the 1960s and 1970s. They recorded until about 1979, when the members went their separate ways.

Their story goes back to 1956 and a group of boys in class 6.d of a Dubrovnik primary school who could play and sing, and who talked Đelo Jusić into writing them a song, "Himna 6. d". They played at school, bought their first instrument, a saxophone, and after secondary school decided to make music their living, starting on the terrace of the Hotel Jadran. Their official beginning is counted from playing at Jusić's wedding. At first they were the Orkestar Đele Jusića and played old Dalmatian songs in a danceable rhythm, until the journalist Tonči Šimunović compared their singing to the old troubadours and gave them their name. Their first concert, in Makarska, was in sailor suits, and matching costumes stayed their trademark.

Their first big success came at the Split Festival in 1966, and that year they recorded their first record for Jugoton, O djevojko, dušo moja, with "Serenada Dubrovniku" and "Trubadurska serenada". In 1967 they won the audience award in Split with "Ulicama moga grada", and in 1968 they represented Yugoslavia at the Eurovision Song Contest in London with "Jedan dan", finishing seventh and making a mark abroad.

In the 1970s they released singles such as "Dok palme njišu grane" (1971) and "Noćna muzika" (1972) and sang "Mi smo dečki" at the Krapina festival. "Dalmatinski lero", "Pusti da ti leut svira" and "Luda mladost" became evergreens. In all they made three LPs, Jedan dan, Mi prepuni smo ljubavi and Pusti da ti leut svira, about twenty singles and an LP with Ben Cramer.

The original line-up was Đelo Jusić, Luciano Capurso, Marko Brešković, Slobodan Berdović, Ladislav Pađen and Hamo Hajdarhodžić, and over the years many others played with them, among them Oliver Dragojević on keyboards. In 2025 Croatia Records released the collection Jedan dan – Priča o Dubrovačkim trubadurima.