Maraaya

Maraaya is a Slovenian pop duo formed in Ljubljana in 2014 by the singer Marjetka Vovk and her husband, the producer and composer Aleš Vovk, known as Raay. The name joins their two names. Their music moves between pop, indie pop, neo-soul, R&B and dance.

Marjetka was born Marjetka Jurkovnik on 19 July 1984 in Celje. Before Maraaya both of them were members of the group Turbo Angels, which she joined in 2005, and then of Tangels. Raay had already made his name as a producer and co-writer for other Slovenian artists: he composed "Round and Round", Tinkara Kovač's Eurovision song of 2014, and co-wrote and produced the first two singles of BQL, "Muza" and "Heart of Gold".

Their debut single "Lovin' Me" (2014) was a song Alya had turned down. It reached the top 20 of the best-selling singles in Italy and 13th place on SloTop50. In 2015 Maraaya won the Slovenian selection EMA with "Here for You" and took it to the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, finishing fifth in the semi-final with 92 points and 14th in the final with 39. The song went to number one in Slovenia and charted in Austria, Finland and Slovakia.

"Living Again" (2015) and "Nothing Left for Me" (2016), which they sang as special guests at EMA 2016, followed. In 2017 came "It's Complicated" with BQL, and in September that year Maraaya became the first Slovenian act to sign with Warner Music. Their first Warner single, "Diamond Duck", went straight to number one on SloTop50.

Later songs include "Mi corazón es tuyo" with Domestikus (2018), "Besplatno" (2019), a Croatian version of "Living Again", "Obujem nove čevlje" (2020) with its English version "New Face", the ballad "Drevo", and "Dobr' gre" (2021), another Slovenian number one. Since autumn 2018 they have also played swing and jazz versions of world hits as Maraaya & Jazzilaz. In 2026 they entered San Marino's Eurovision selection with "Alu Alu" but did not reach the final.

Marjetka and Raay have two sons and run a music school for young talent, and Marjetka was a judge on Slovenija ima talent from its fifth to its ninth season.