Faraoni

Faraoni are a pop rock band from Izola on the Slovenian coast, founded in 1967 as the town's answer to the already well-known Kameleoni. The founder was Valter Soša, joined at the first concert by Stojan Družina, Gianni Collori and Nelfi Depangher, the drummer, singer and songwriter who has stayed with the band ever since. Črtomir Janowsky later replaced Soša.

In their first years Faraoni played psychedelic and hard rock, and in 1970 they released an EP with the hits "Figov list" and "Berač". In 1972 the band stopped for seven years when members left to work abroad.

Faraoni came back on 29 November 1979 with a slightly changed line-up: Depangher, Piero Pocecco on bass, Marjan Malikovič on guitar and Ferdinand Maraž on keyboards, with guitarist Enzo Hrovatin joining in 1983. In this period they toured abroad and backed the Croatian stars Tereza Kesovija and Oliver Dragojević, with whom they later recorded "V San Simonu" and "Peškador".

The first album, Faraoni, came in 1988, followed by Tu je moj dom (1992), Naj te morje (1994), Stari časi (1995), Sem takšen, ker sem živ (1996), the live V živo! recorded at San Simon in 1997, Kar tako (1999), Solinar (2002), Vol. 1 (2004), Skupaj (2007) and Best of – vol. 2 (2014).

Melodije morja in sonca was their home festival: they won the audience prize with "E tristemente" in 1992, "Mi ljudje smo kot morje" in 1994 and "Kar je res, je res" in 1997, and jury awards for interpretation in 1996 and arrangement in 2000. At EMA they placed seventh with "Sonce sreče" in 1993, fourth with "Ljubezen je" in 1995 and seventh with "Imej me vedno s seboj" in 2002.

Faraoni still play now and then, today as a quartet. Keyboardist Ferdinand Maraž died in 2003 and guitarist Enzo Hrovatin in 2022.