Jani Kovačič

Jani Kovačič is a Slovenian singer-songwriter, guitarist, poet and writer, born Janko Kovačič on 23 June 1953 in Ljubljana. He is the son of the writer Lojze Kovačič. His songs move between pop, rock and blues, and for most of his working life he also taught philosophy at Gimnazija Bežigrad in Ljubljana, retiring from teaching in 2023.

He first performed in 1976 at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. His debut LP, Ulica talcev, came out on RTV Ljubljana in 1980, produced by Marko Brecelj, with Lado Jakša on saxophone and Jonas Žnidaršič on bass; it included "Hokaido", "Škoflca", "Žare Lepotec" and "Otroci samohranilk". Žare Lepotec v Andih (1981), Ljudje (1984), Jebent (1987) and Asfaltni otroci (1991) followed. "Delam" is one of his best-known songs. An album recorded for 1990, Neonski angeli, found no label and was never released.

In 1994 he was one of the singer-songwriters in the project Sedem veličastnih with Janez Bončina, Vlado Kreslin, Zoran Predin, Peter Lovšin and Aleksander Mežek. The compilation Tretje uho appeared in 1995, and in 1996 he received the Ježek award. Later albums include Povabilo na bluz (1998), Carmina profana (1999), Disko Karamazovi (2001), Balade s ceste 1 and 2 (2002 and 2003), Vošč in kolede (2008), Silikonski časi (2016) and Besne pesmi (2017) with Ana Pupedan. He has also tried rap and translated and sung songs by Tom Waits.

Orfej iz pekla (2020), a book with a CD, presents songs written in the Nazi camps by the Polish prisoner Aleksander Kulisiewicz and others. Jani Kovačič chose 23 of them, translated them with Simona Klemenčič, transcribed the tunes and recorded them live at the National Gallery in November 2019.

Jani Kovačič is also an author: the poetry collections Jazz (1989) and Tretje oko (1994), a short history of Slovenians from 1977 to 1993 in songs, plays such as Princesa na zrnu graha (2004), and the prose work Poklic mladost (2007). He also worked as a concert editor at Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana.