Jana Todorović

Jana Todorović, born Dragana Stanojević and known on stage simply as Jana, is a Serbian turbo-folk and pop-folk singer. She was born on 15 March 1974 in Pristina, Kosovo, and grew up in the village of Babin Most near Obilić.

She began singing at fourteen, in 1988, when she went with her parents and her brother, an accordionist, to a well-known kafana in Obilić. During dinner she took the microphone and sang Šemsa Suljaković's "Što me pitaš" with her back to the audience, and was loudly applauded. In 1992 she graduated from the Stevan Mokranjac music school in Pristina and released her first album, Imam moć, under the name Dragana Stanojević on PGP RTB. It sold poorly, and after more nights singing in kafanas across Kosovo she took a break and taught music at the primary school in Babin Most.

In 1997 she met the singer Marina Živković in Kosovska Mitrovica, who recommended her to Ivan Todorović, a discotheque owner looking for a live band and later her husband. In October 1997 she moved to Germany and signed with the label ZAM, whose director Saša Popović suggested the stage name Jana, since there was already a famous Dragana, Dragana Mirković. Her second album, Sokolica, came out in 1998.

After touring with Lepa Brena she moved to Brena's label Grand Production, which released Prolaznica (1999), Ostavi mi drugove (2000), with the hits "Ko visoko leti", "Robinja" and the title song, and Prevara do prevare (2001), with "Barabar", "Tuge mi dovoljno", "Sviraj nešto narodno" and "Dođe mi da vrisnem", a duet with Saša Matić. Her 2002 album brought "Šta će ti pevačica" and "Piješ, ne nudiš".

From 2003 she recorded for VIP Production, later renamed BN Music, a label founded by her husband. Zidovi (2003) included "Kad slavuji zapevaju" with Šekib Mujanović, Malo magije (2005) "Ne pitaj", "Crna kutija" and "Sunce sjalo" with Sejo Kalač, and Kući, kući (2007) and Jana Dva (2011) followed. Since then she has released singles such as "Lune, lune" (2012) and "Boginja" (2014), and duets including "Za sve dobre ribe" with Marta Savić.

Jana's daughter Kristina was born in November 2006 in Las Vegas. Her home village still calls her its pride, and she keeps putting out new songs on her own YouTube channel, among them "Taman" (2023) and "Prioritet" (2024).