Ekatarina Velika

Ekatarina Velika, often called EKV, was a rock band from Belgrade, Serbia, playing post-punk and alternative rock. It was formed in February 1982 as Katarina II by singer and guitarist Milan Mladenović, after the end of Šarlo Akrobata, with guitarist Dragomir "Gagi" Mihajlović, drummer Dušan Dejanović and bassist Zoran Radomirović; the name came from a girl Mihajlović loved. Keyboard player Margita Stefanović joined in late 1982, and by early 1983 drummer Ivan Vdović and bassist Bojan Pečar completed the line-up.

The debut album "Katarina II" came out on ZKP RTLJ in 1984, in only 3,000 copies. When Mihajlović left and claimed the old name, the band became Ekatarina Velika, after Catherine the Great, and released "Ekatarina Velika" in March 1985, with "Oči boje meda" and "Tattoo". "S' vetrom uz lice" (1986) was the breakthrough, with "Budi sam na ulici" and "Ti si sav moj bol", and "Ljubav" (1987), co-produced with Theodore Yanni, brought "Zemlja" and "7 dana". The live "19LIVE86" followed the same year.

"Samo par godina za nas" (1989), with Mitar Subotić on guitar and production, gave the band "Krug" and "Par godina za nas"; in 2006 "Par godina za nas" was voted the best Yugoslav popular song on B92's Top 100. Drummers came and went over the years, among them Ivan Fece "Firči", Ivan Ranković, Srđan Todorović and Marko Milivojević, and in 1990 Pečar left for London.

"Dum Dum" (1991) and "Neko nas posmatra" (1993) were made as Yugoslavia broke apart, and the band played at Belgrade's anti-war protests in 1991. In 1992 Mladenović joined Rimtutituki, the anti-war group of members of Partibrejkers, Električni Orgazam and Ekatarina Velika, which released the single "Slušaj 'vamo".

The last concert was at the Pjesma Mediterana festival in Budva on 24 August 1994. Milan Mladenović died of pancreatic cancer in Belgrade on 5 November 1994, at 36, and with him the band came to an end. Bojan Pečar died in 1998 and Margita Stefanović in 2002. In 2015 Rolling Stone Croatia placed "S' vetrom uz lice" tenth among the 100 best Yugoslav albums.

In the Rock Express Top 100 Yugoslav Rock Songs of All Times, compiled by the Serbian magazine Rock Express from a poll that began in 1999 and published in 2000, with votes from more than 3,400 readers, 120 journalists and critics and 100 musicians, "Krug" was ranked 3rd, "Par godina za nas" 11th, "Ti si sav moj bol" 41st, "Zemlja" 54th and "7 dana" 86th, while "Slušaj 'vamo", credited to Rimtutituki, was 27th.