Hauptman

Hauptman is the stage name of Žan Hauptman, a Slovenian singer, pianist and keyboardist who mixes jazz, alternative R&B, soul, funk and pop and sings in English and Slovenian. He was born in Maribor in 1994 and grew up between Maribor and Ptuj, which is why he is on Muzika-Balkan. He went to school and music school in Maribor and studied jazz singing across the border in Klagenfurt, Austria; the sources do not say where he lives today, but he plays mostly in Slovenia.

He is a graduate jazz singer and taught himself the piano. At the II. gimnazija in Maribor he sang in English-language musicals with the English Student Theatre and played for the school choir, while studying jazz at the Maribor conservatory. He then studied jazz singing at the Carinthian State Conservatory in Klagenfurt, finishing in February 2019, and took further lessons in Boston with the jazz singer Sheila Jordan. At 18 he reached the last six of his category on the Slovenian X Factor (2012), though not the live shows.

His first single as Hauptman, "Send Me Flying", came out in August 2019. His first album, Finished, Not Perfect, followed on 27 January 2021, recorded with the band he met in Klagenfurt: Maša But (backing vocals, flute), Filip Vadnu (guitar), Pavel Čebašek (drums) and Vid Turica (bass), who also produced it. Three of its songs were picked as pop song of the week on Val 202. A remix of "Daydreamin' of Cali" also came out as a single, and he sang on Leopold I.'s "Pleše po svoje".

In 2021 he played the MENT festival and in January 2022 Eurosonic Noorderslag in the Netherlands. With "Sledim", his first song in Slovenian, he reached the final of EMA 2022 and finished eighth. The album Blizu followed in 2023, the live album Izštekani Hauptman in 2024 and the mini album Liberosis in 2026.

He also plays keyboards and sings backing vocals for other artists, among them Emkej and Maja Keuc, and sings in the duo Kyree with the Viennese pianist and producer Erik Asatrian. The playlist gathers his videos from his own channel.