Marija Trajkovska

Marija Trajkovska is a Serbian folk singer from Glogonj near Pančevo in Banat, the daughter of a Macedonian mother and a Hungarian father. Her first records carried the name Marija Baša Trajkovska, joining her father's and mother's surnames. The idea was composer Predrag Vuković Vukas's, and it confused people, who assumed she was a married woman using her husband's name.

She was singing oriental songs in a kafana in Preljina when Vukas came to hear her. After her medley he got up and left, and she thought he was disappointed, but a few days later he came back with songs for her. She was eighteen. Early on her diction was unclear, and it was Šaban Šaulić who taught her, in a kafana, to open her mouth and sing without strain.

Her debut single in 1977 brought two lasting hits, "Požuri ljubavi u moj zagrljaj" and "Plava ciganka", and by her account sold about 100,000 copies. It opened the era of the "blue Gypsy girl" songs, well before Mile Kitić and Stoja. Two more singles by Vukas followed, "Tajno venčanje" and "Ja neću mrvice ljubavi tvoje". As a complete outsider she took third place at the Ilidža festival in 1978 with "Tajno venčanje", backed by Buca Jovanović's orchestra, and she also sang at Hit parada in 1979.

In 1981 she recorded a rare album of songs by Mića Nikolić, whom she met through the group Čičine in Šabac. Her most commercial album came out on Sarajevo Disk in 1985, led by "Prazan mi je stan, mali otoman", and in 1986 Marija Trajkovska recorded an album of Mexican songs. Her former husband, the composer Mića Stanojević Piromanac, wrote her a song about lost youth that she counts among her best. Later she re-recorded her two biggest hits.