Kingston

Kingston is a Slovenian pop band from Idrija, formed in 1994 and named after Kingston, the capital of Jamaica. Its songs from different eras move between pop, reggae and Latin music, and its summer hits have kept it on Slovenian stages for more than thirty years.

The first song the band ever played was Inner Circle's "Sweat (A La La La La Long)", and the first one it recorded was "Ti si tu", a Slovenian version of Yazoo's "Only You". Kingston's first television appearance was on the show Poglej in zadeni. The debut album Poglej stvari z druge strani came out in 1995, and in 1996 the band won Nova scena, part of the Melodije morja in sonca festival, with "Ko bo padal dež", the win it celebrated thirty years later in 2026.

In 1998 Kingston won the main Melodije morja in sonca festival with "Cela ulica nori", the title song of that year's album, which also carried "Bingo bango mango tango", "Plesati na soncu" and "Mene luna nosi". Most of those songs were written by the keyboard player Zvone Tomac, the band's composer, arranger and producer, together with the bassist Dare Kaurič. In 2002 the band won the festival again with "Hotel modro nebo".

The albums Daj povej! Daj povej! (1997), Pazi na korake (1999), Ko imaš vsega poln kufer (2002), Republika banana (2003), Hoplaža (2005) and Tropikana klub (2008) followed, and in 2010 the live album V živo! Križanke. Along the way came hits such as "Mini bikini", "Vzemi vse", "Lunapark", "Tri prste tekile", "Bossa noga" and "Mi delamo galamo".

The line-up today is Reno Čibej on vocals, saxophone and acoustic guitar, Zvone Tomac on keyboards, Klemen Ogrizek on drums, Dejan Dimec on guitar and vocals and Alex Mladenov on bass. Mladenov joined after Dare Kaurič, a long-time member and one of the band's main songwriters, left on 31 December 2024 to pursue a solo career; Dimec took over Kaurič's vocal parts in most songs.

In 2026 Kingston released "To noč ne spimo", the first song recorded with Mladenov, with a Latin feel and Cuban rhythms. Its video was shot in Izola, where the band had filmed the video for "Cela ulica nori" almost thirty years earlier.