Janez Bončina

Janez Bončina, known as Benč, is a Slovenian rock singer, guitarist and songwriter from Ljubljana. He started making music at 16, and in 2025 he celebrated sixty years on stage. Slovenian Wikipedia credits his early groups with starting Slovenian pop rock.

In the mid-1960s he formed Helioni with Tomaž Domicelj. With Mladi levi he went to Slovenska popevka in 1969, where they won a jury prize for "Zaznamovan", and to the Opatija festival in 1970, where "Oluja" won the jury award. He wrote songs for The Generals, an international group he toured Swiss resorts with in the early 1970s; he was also a youth footballer at Olimpija and turned down a better-paid football contract for music. In 1972 he founded the rock band Srce, whose "Spomin" won him a debut prize at Slovenska popevka.

In 1975 he formed September, a jazz rock band of top Yugoslav musicians. Between 1976 and 1979 September toured the USSR, Belgium, Italy, Cuba, Germany and France, and recorded its second album in the United States. Later came Karamela and, in 1988, Yunk – Junaki nočne kronike, which he left after two albums.

His solo album Ob šanku (1983) was made on advice from Arsen Dedić to write the words first, and its title song won the jury prize at Pop delavnica. "Navali narod na gostilne" and "Poet" were also prized there. From 1992 he played acoustically with Tomo Jurak and Janez Zmazek, and in 1994 he joined Vlado Kreslin, Zoran Predin, Peter Lovšin, Aleksander Mežek, Tomaž Domicelj and Jani Kovačič in the project Sedem veličastnih. At Melodije morja in sonca he was awarded for "Abraham" (1994) and "Čas zaceli rane" (1997).

Further albums are Najlepši neuspehi (1992), Staro vino (1996), Delo mi ne leži (2001), Janezz (2005) with the big band of Braco J. Doblekar, Sol, poper in sanje (2010) and Live in Mons (2013) with the Big Band RTV Slovenija. The compilation Bendologija won a Zlati petelin in 1999, and he received the Zlata nota for his life's work in 1993. In 2003 he played Hala Tivoli with Deep Purple.

On 20 June 2025 the Ljubljana Festival opened with a concert for his sixty years in music on Kongresni trg, where Alenka Godec, Tinkara Kovač, Anika Horvat, Ana Soklič and others sang his hits, including "Ta noč je moja", "Kadar ognji dogorijo" and "Maja z biseri".