Kristina Oberžan

Kristina Oberžan is a Slovenian jazz singer from Bela krajina, born on 17 June 1979, whose music also takes in blues, soul, country, pop and gospel. She began in classical music as a saxophonist, finishing classical saxophone at the secondary school of music and ballet in Ljubljana in 1998, and went on to study jazz singing in Ljubljana with Nada Žgur.

In 2002 she won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in the United States, and in October 2005 she reached the final of the Brussels International Voice Competition for jazz singers. She graduated in 2005 and two years later took a master's degree in jazz singing at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz. Back in Slovenia she taught at the diocesan grammar school in Šentvid and, from 2008 to 2011, taught jazz and pop singing at the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music and the St Stanislaus Institution.

She sang "Mavrica" at EMA 2004, the Slovenian Eurovision selection, and appeared twice at Slovenska popevka: in 2006 with "Vsak dan je drugačen", which won the expert jury's award for the best performance, and in 2010 with "Romantičen večer", which won the jury's award for the best lyrics. On 13 February 2016 she competed at Poprock with "Zato živim", a duet with Matevž Šalehar, Hamo.

Her first album, Kakor lep roman (2007), made with the trio Grooveyards (Gregor Ftičar, Filip Šijanec and Tomaž Štular), was devoted to Slovenian popevke and includes "Zvezde padajo v noč" and "Mojčina pesem". The second, My Heart Knew (2016), is mostly her own songs in English, such as "I Dream Of You", "Unconditional" and "Sweet Home", with "Ljubi me" in Slovenian and "Lost In Time" with Hamo.

Over the years Kristina Oberžan has sung with the choir Carmina Slovenica in the Adiemus project, with Jani Kovačič and the Šentpolh Sextet, often with the RTV Slovenija Big Band, and as lead singer of the international jazz group Yello, Green & More, with whom she recorded two albums. She also sang on Panda's album Šepetanja (2012). She now lives in London.