Ivan Mikulić

Ivan Mikulić is a Croatian pop singer from Herzegovina, best known outside his country for representing Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 with "Daješ mi krila", sung in Istanbul as "You Are the Only One". Born Ivica Ante Mikulić on 8 May 1968, he grew up and went to school in Široki Brijeg and lives in Zagreb. He graduated in journalism and holds a master's degree in public relations.

He started young. As a soloist at music school he won prizes at competitions across the former Yugoslavia: in 1979 he sang at the Mali šlager festival in Sarajevo, and in 1980 he won first prize and the Zlatno slavejče award at the children's festival in Skopje, where he returned in 1981. That year TV Sarajevo named him one of the ten most talented children in its 1000 škola campaign. At fourteen he founded the pop-rock group Zvjezdane staze, in which he sang and played bass.

His professional debut came at Dora 1995 with Zrinko Tutić's song "Ti i ja". The album Zaljubljen i lud followed in 1996 and began a long partnership with producer Miro Buljan. In 1999 he won the Grand Prix of Melodije Mostara with "Pustite me da je volim", took audience prizes in Split and at Zadar-fest, released Kaži joj suzo and toured Bosnia and Croatia with the band Saturnus. In 2000 he sang Jesus in the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, staged by the Komedija theatre at Lisinski in Zagreb.

The album Ti si ona prava (2002) brought the hit "Podižeš mi puls", after "Hej D.J." had won the audience at the Split festival in 2001. In 2004 he won Dora with "Daješ mi krila", which he composed himself, with lyrics by Vedran Ostojić and Duško Gruborović. At Eurovision in Istanbul the song was ninth in the semi-final with 72 points and twelfth of 24 in the final with 50 points.

Melodije Mostara stayed his festival: he won it with "Lovac" in 2005, took the audience prize with "Igraj, igraj, nemoj stat'" in 2006, the title song of that year's album, and won the Grand Prix with "Ja sam Hercegovac" in 2007 and "Zakletva na kamenu" in 2008. Croatia Records released his double CD Zlatna kolekcija, 31 songs, in 2007.

He has performed regularly with the band Babylon from Županja since 2007 and often with HKUD Hercegovac from Široki Brijeg, sings every year at Večernjakov pečat with the Zagreb Philharmonic and the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, and plays mostly for the Croatian diaspora. Since the 1990s he has given more than a hundred charity performances. His other well-known songs include "Ne mogu ja bez tebe", "E, da si moja" and "Braća po kamenu".