Matija Vuica

Matija Vuica is a Croatian singer, fashion designer and costume designer, born in Metković in 1958. She is on Muzika-Balkan as the voice of the new wave band Trotakt Projekt and of Gracia, the name it took later. She comes from Metković and has lived in Zagreb since 1978.

She came to Zagreb to study foreign trade, and her boyfriend at the time, Jure Popović, was already writing songs. He found a band in Metković and Matija became its singer; Trotakt Projekt began in 1981. They first made a name by winning the JURM contest, the "Yugoslav rock moment" run by the youth magazine Polet, with a demo of six or seven songs recorded on a cassette player. Their first concert, on Christmas Eve 1981 at Kulušić in Zagreb, was a multimedia evening of music, a fashion show of Matija's first collection and comic-strip decorations by their friend Teo Vučković. She sewed the band's trousers and shirts from painted bedsheets.

Their alternative new wave sound and their image made them a cult band of the 1980s. The singles "Rolan" and "Zaplešimo" were hits on Yugoslav charts, but no label ever gave them an album, so they released their only vinyl LP themselves, on their own label Magic Music. After about ten years the band renamed itself Gracia, which Matija Vuica and Jurica Popović have carried on ever since. Back in Zagreb in late 1993, Gracia had a big hit with "Linđo" and toured Germany, Switzerland and Austria through Jasenka Houra's label Crno-bijeli svijet.

Her designing career started alongside the music, and in the 1990s she became known for one-of-a-kind evening gowns and made-to-measure wedding dresses of silk and lace, shown at Cro-a-Porter. As a costume designer she has worked in the theatre with directors such as Vlado Štefančić on Kosa and Dundo Maroje, Vlatko Habunek, Peter Farago, Joško Juvančić and Damir Zlatar Frey. In 2015 her home town gave her its Narona award for culture.

The playlist is her Topic channel, with "Carica", "Mašala", "Sve su žene prevarene", "Dobra večer tugo" and "Gori moja zvijezdo".