Grupa 777

Grupa 777 is a pop band from Rijeka and one of the best-known Croatian festival groups. Mirko Sertić founded it in 1970 as a jazz trio, and it first appeared at the BUM festival in Ljubljana in 1972 with "Exodus". The group's real success began when singer Ira Kraljić and keyboard player and songwriter Andrej Baša joined. With Sertić on bass and Andrija Fišćur on drums, they appeared at BUM in 1973 with "Hej, zar ne čuješ ti", which became the theme of a youth programme on Radio Zagreb and brought an invitation from Jugoton.

Encouraged by the label's music editor Pero Gotovac, the band turned to pop and light entertainment music. Their first single, "Banane", a cover of the Italian hit "Sugli sugli bane bane", sold a gold edition, and so did the next one, Baša's "Tko te voli više od mene". The first LP followed in 1974, and the group toured Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and East Germany. They were most loyal to the Split festival, where they sang for twelve summers, starting with "Zov mora" in 1974, and at Sarajevo's Vaš šlager sezone they introduced "Ko to kuca na vratima" (1975), "Probudi se, dragane" (1977) and "Tri slatka dana" (1978).

Andrej Baša left in 1977 to open his own studio but kept writing for the band. Beside Ira Kraljić, singers Nevia Rigutto, Neda Devčić and Milka Čakarun Lenac came and went, and the group won awards for the most played songs on the radio with "Noć tajanstva", set to verses by Dobriša Cesarić, "Ne idi, Gorane" and "Srce od papira". The albums Ti si moj hit (1983) and Tko te voli više od mene (1984) both went gold.

In 1984, after twelve years, Ira Kraljić left, and Jozefina Jurišić and Dalida Banac took over the vocals. With Kićo Slabinac the group won the 1985 Split festival with "Serenada i mandoline", and in 1986 they won the Opatija festival with "Pronađi me u zvijezdama", which also gave its name to an album. "Ljiljane moj bijeli", sung at Split in 1987, was loved in Bosnia and Herzegovina as much as in Croatia. Toward the end of the decade the line-up changed more and more often, and the group slowly moved out of the spotlight.

All their records came out on Jugoton, later Croatia Records, which issued Zlatna kolekcija in 2009 and The Best of Collection in 2015. Over the years they also sang "Eto tako, nije lako" with Ljupka Dimitrovska, appeared at the Zagreb festival, Opatija and MESAM, and took part three times in the Yugoslav selection for the Eurovision Song Contest.