Kvartet 4M

Kvartet 4M was a vocal quartet from Zagreb, founded by Ivica Krajač in October 1956. The name came from the initials of the members' nicknames. They are on Muzika-Balkan as a Zagreb group: the quartet was formed, based and first heard there, with its first public concert at the Glazbeni zavod in November 1956, and it remained a Zagreb band until it broke up in 1974.

The best-known line-up was Ivica Krajač "Mali", Branko Marušić "Medo", Željko Ružić "Muki" and Miro Ungar. Ungar sang with them until 1964 and started a solo career in 1968, the year the Rijeka-born Saša Sablić "Medicus" took his place.

Their first record, "Down by the Riverside", came out in 1958, and over the years they made more than 60 records. They won prizes at the festivals of Zagreb in 1962 and 1963, Opatija in 1962 and 1968 and Split in 1964, and their twist "Platno, boje, kist i... twist" took first place at the Zagreb festival in 1963. In Italy they won the Canzone per l'Europa festival in Saint-Vincent in 1963 and 1964.

They were also one of the most travelled groups of their time. They first went west to Vienna in 1958, appeared on the Tommy Steele Show in England and sang across Western Europe. In 1962 they were the first act from Yugoslavia to make a two-month tour of Israel, between 1967 and 1973 they toured the Soviet Union six times, and in 1971 they spent two months in the United States with Holiday on Ice.

In 1969 they won the Yugoslav selection with "Pozdrav svijetu" and sang it at the Eurovision Song Contest in Madrid, finishing 13th. Their other well-known songs include "Rijeka bez povratka", "Buona sera signorina", "Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu", "Volim kišu", "Don Pasquale" and "Nima Splita do Splita".

After the split in 1974 the members went on to other careers: Krajač became a director at the Croatian National Theatre's opera in Zagreb and a composer and lyricist, and Sablić a doctor. Kvartet 4M received the Porin lifetime achievement award in 1995, and their last appearance together was on 11 December 2006 at Tvornica kulture in Zagreb, at Miro Ungar's concert for his fifty years in music.