Leteći Odred

Leteći Odred ("Flying Squad") is a Croatian pop rock band from Osijek, formed in 1991 by singer and songwriter Denis Dumančić, who writes most of its songs. Their career took off in 1992, when Husein Hasanefendić Hus of Parni Valjak discovered them and, with Marijan Brkić Brko, backed the recording of Dumančić's songs. The first album, Među zvijezdama, came out at the end of 1992 with "Neka neveni ne venu" and "Kao stari moj", and the band took part in the first Croatian Eurovision selection in 1993 with "Cijeli je svijet zaljubljen" and again in 1995 with "Pišem ti pismo".

Kada odletim (1994) brought "Heroji ne plaču", written by Miroslav Škoro. Od Prevlake do Dunava (1996), with the title song and "Večeras je dušo rođendan tvoj", sold more than 20,000 copies and was followed by a year-long tour of more than a hundred concerts in Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The fourth album, Kuda ide ovaj vlak (1997), held "Sanjao sam moju Ružicu", which topped the Croatian charts for more than three months, and by the end of 1998 it had sold over 30,000 copies, the band's best seller. They filled the Dom sportova in Zagreb on Valentine's Day three times, in 1997, 1998 and 2002.

Vrijeme (1999), their first record for Dallas Records, was rated by critics as their most mature album. "Daj mi sebe", from the 2001 album of the same name, was the third most performed song on Croatian radio and television in 2001. The live album Uživo (2002) closed with a duet with Alka Vuica, "Hajde ne laži meni", and Razglednice (2004) brought "Kažu" and "Jednu mladost imam", which became the anthem of school-leavers. It was the last album of the first line-up: Dumančić, Allen Vekić on guitar, Hrvoje Hum on bass, Marian Kiss on keyboards and Damir Gleković-Taban on drums.

Dumančić also became one of Croatia's most performed songwriters, with songs for Massimo, Željko Bebek, Boris Novković, Hari Mata Hari, Danijela Martinović, Jasmin Stavros, Crvena Jabuka, Zlatko Pejaković and many others. Leteći Odred came back with Jutro poslije brijanja (2007), marked twenty years with a concert at Zagreb's Tvornica kulture on 25 February 2012, and has since released Agent za ljubav (2013), Uspomene (2020) and Zakon ljubavi (2024). Today Dumančić is the band's only permanent member, playing with hired musicians.