Ivana Banfić

Ivana Banfić, also known as I Bee, is a Croatian singer and dancer, born on 16 November 1969 in Zagreb. She trained in classical music as a child and finished secondary music school in piano, sang backing vocals from the age of fourteen for, among others, Dino Dvornik and Dino Merlin, and co-hosted the HTV music show Top Cup with Severina. She rose to fame in the 1990s, when dance music ruled the Croatian charts.

She made her solo debut at Zagrebfest 1990 with "Dođi", written by Dino Dvornik, and released her first album Vozy me polako in 1991, the year she sang "Daj povedi me" for Croatia at Jugovizija in Sarajevo. Istinite priče Vol 1. (1994) gave her a first success with "Ti si bolji" and then the summer hit "Šumica". Mala škola ABC (1995) brought "Cigareta", Bogovi su pali na tjeme (1996), mostly songs by Dvornik, brought "Dream" and the duet "Nag", and "Navigator" from Kalypso (1998) was the biggest summer hit in Croatia that year.

Žena devedesetih (1999) went gold. Her duet with Dino Merlin, "Godinama" (2000), was popular all over the former Yugoslavia, won all three awards at the Croatian Radio Festival and the Porin for hit of the year in 2001. Ona zna (2001), led by "Žena zna", became her most successful album, with more than 60,000 copies sold. Glamour brought "Navodno", a duet with Hari Varešanović of Hari Mata Hari. In 2004 she won the Grand Prix of the Croatian Radio Festival, came second at Sunčane skale with Goran Karan on "Ljubav trebam svaki dan" and received the Večernjakova ruža for best female singer.

Vjerujem (2006) was followed by Dora appearances in 2006 and 2008 and, after four quiet years, the comeback single "Vampir" in 2010. Later singles run from "Zovi me Erika" (2011) to "Ima dima" (2025) and "Svemir pleše" (2026). She is married to Kruno Ladišić, and they have a son, Jan.