Miroslav Škoro

Miroslav Škoro is a Croatian singer and songwriter, born on 29 July 1962 in Osijek, best known for building his songs on the traditional Slavonian tamburica. His hits, among them "Šumi, šumi javore", "Ne vjeruje srce pameti" and "Milo moje", fill concert halls.

He finished primary school and grammar school in his home town and graduated in civil engineering in Osijek. He bought his first guitar in the winter of 1978, and in 1979 the album Zadnja stanica became the first record on which he sang and played guitar. Tamburica albums followed in 1983 and 1985, and from 1985 he performed with the tamburica orchestra Slavonski bećari led by Antun Nikolić Tuca.

He then spent two years in the United States, studying at the Community College of Allegheny County. There he met the Pennsylvania tamburica virtuoso Jerry Grcevich, released an album with the Jerry Grcevich Orchestra in Pittsburgh in 1985, and found a new passion: writing music and lyrics in the tradition of Slavonia and Vojvodina. Back in Croatia he formed the tamburica band Ravnica, and his 1992 album Ne dirajte mi ravnicu, also made with Grcevich, marked his career for good.

Albums followed regularly: Miroslav Škoro i Ravnica (1993), Sitan vez (1996), Ptica samica (1999), Slagalica (2001), Milo moje (2003), Svetinja (2005), Moje boje (2008), Čudnovate pjesmice o moru i lavoru (2013), Putujem sam (2014) and Hrvatski Božić (2015). He stayed true to the tamburica, though not always in a strict folk format. "Milo moje" won the Croatian Musicians Union award for hit song in 2004, and Svetinja sold more than 20,000 copies.

From 2001 to 2006 he ran Croatia Records as its director, the country's largest record company. In 2003 he sat on the jury of the talent show Story Supernova Music Talents with Đorđe Novković, and he created and hosted the HRT music shows "Država, selo, grad" and "Pjevaj moju pjesmu". In 2017 he earned a doctorate in economics with a thesis on the music industry in the digital age, and in 2010 he published his autobiography, Stoput bih isto ponovo.