Ljupka Dimitrovska

Ljupka Dimitrovska, full name Ljupka Dimitrovska-Kalogjera, was a Macedonian-born Croatian singer of entertainment music and schlager, at her most popular in the 1970s and early 1980s. She was born on 25 July 1946 in Skopje and lived and worked in Zagreb, recording for Jugoton. From 1968 to 2006 she was married to the composer Nikica Kalogjera, who wrote her biggest hits.

Her first single, "Dvajca mladići za edna devojka", and her first EP, Moj slatki grad, came out in 1968. In 1969 she sang "Para-pa-pa" at the Split Festival and "Go čekav letoto" in Zagreb, and in 1970 she finished sixth at Jugovizija with "Bay, bay". Her best-known international success was "Adio", written by Kalogjera and Ivica Krajač, which won first prize at the 1970 song festival in Athens.

Over the next quarter of a century she sang at about fifty festivals, most of them the Split Festival and Zagrebfest, where she often took first prizes. Her first album, Ljupka, came out in 1975, the year of "Ljutiće se moja majka", followed by Igramo se (1979) and Nasmiješi se (1982). With Ivica Šerfezi she sang many duets, among them "Ljubav je nešto više" at Beogradsko proleće in 1978 and "Gitara, gitara" in Split in 1980, and the two made the album U dvoje je ljepše (1980) and, for Opus in Bratislava, Southern Sunshine (1983).

She was very popular in Czechoslovakia and East Germany and also had success in Greece and France, with records such as Wenn Musik erklingt (1975), Dobro jutro ljubavi (1985) and The Songs of My Sea (1988). At home "Majka Maru" came out in 1980 and "Maestral" in 1981, and the albums Nisam se kajala (1985) and Slika s mature (1988) both went gold. Zvona zvone followed in 1990.

Her last festival appearance was with "Lipa Dalmacija" in Split in 1994. Ljupka Dimitrovska died in Zagreb on 3 October 2016, aged 70. Other songs from her career include "Što će biti s nama" and "Bambino".