Milena Plavšić

Milena Plavšić is a Serbian folk singer, born on 28 February 1956 in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in the 1980s one of the most popular singers of narodna music. Her interpretation of the folk song "Banja Luko i ta tvoja sela" is called her calling card.

She grew up in a working family and spent her childhood in a village just outside Banja Luka; her parents did not want her to become a singer. She started singing in the Banja Luka culture societies Veselin Masleša and Vaso Pelagić, and after winning the festival in Sokobanja in 1971 she recorded her first single, "Volim, volim tebe, dragi", with two songs she had written herself. After school she moved to Novi Sad and finished the college of hospitality there.

Between 1971 and 1982 she recorded eleven singles, mostly with music by Aca Stepić and Buca Jovanović and with her own lyrics; the boxer Marijan Beneš also wrote words for her. In 1975 she wrote both music and words of "Ti si sada srećna", which Šaban Šaulić sang to win the Yugoslav festival in Paris, and in 1977 she won the newcomer award at the Ilidža festival with "Dođi dok te srce zove".

Her big success began with the 1980 album Ti ne znaš, a ja te volim, with the title song and "Banja Luko i ta tvoja sela". Jugoton albums followed almost every year: Ako te izgubim, ljubavi (1982), Samo za tebe, jedini moj (1983), Ko će da me sakrije od kiše (1984), Sve je lijepo, samo tebe nema (1985), Pisma ću tvoja čuvati (1987), Zapamtićeš, zapamtićeš (1988) and Odlazim (1991). She sang at MESAM, at the Vogošća festival in Sarajevo and at Raspevana Šumadija, and later recorded for MIT Starčević, Diskos, Grand Production and BN Music. She has written many of her songs herself, among them "Poželi nam, majko, sreću", dedicated to her late brother, and "Jaka žena".

Milena Plavšić received the Estrada award of Serbia twice, in 1986 and 2019, the second time with the status of a distinguished artist. She has released twelve singles and thirteen studio albums.