Maria Dallas

Maria Dallas is a New Zealand singer of country and pop, born Marina Devcich on 14 April 1946 in Morrinsville, New Zealand. She is on Muzika-Balkan under Croatia because of her father: AudioCulture, New Zealand's music history site, describes her as the daughter of a Croatian poultry farmer and his New Zealand-born wife. She made her career in Australia from the late 1960s, and AudioCulture says she still lives in Brisbane, where she made her home.

She grew up in Morrinsville, the second youngest of thirteen children, and in 1965 she was an apprentice hairdresser there. With a school friend she sang duets and won a Johnny Cooper talent contest, and she became the singer of the Lew Manson Band, playing around the Waikato. In 1966 she signed to Viking Records, whose Ron Dalton gave her the name Maria Dallas when she arrived in Wellington.

In June 1966 she recorded "Tumblin' Down", written by Jay Epae, and it won the 1966 Loxene Golden Disc, the public-vote award of New Zealand music. In 1967 she went to Nashville, signed with RCA and recorded with producer Felton Jarvis; the album Maria Dallas in Nashville included "Your Old Handyman", a Dolly Parton song. "Ambush" from those sessions became a hit in Australia, and in 1969 the Auckland Star named her New Zealand's highest-earning woman.

Her biggest hit came in 1970: "Pinocchio" went to number one in New Zealand for several weeks. In Australia she appeared on The Bandstand Show and other television shows, was named Queensland's Country Singer of the Year six years in a row and ran Club Dallas in Brisbane in the late 1980s. In all she has released at least ten albums and 25 singles. The playlist gathers her recordings from her Topic channel.