Monika Pučelj

Monika Pučelj, married name Paternoster, is a Slovenian pop singer, born on 14 October 1984 in Slovenj Gradec. She was seventeen when she first sang at EMA, and in the following years she was a regular at the big Slovenian festivals.

In 2002 she sang "Mi paše", written by Danilo Kocjančič, Drago Mislej and Marino Legovič, at EMA, the Slovenian Eurovision selection, and finished fourth. The song gave its name to her first album, Mi paše, released the same year, and that summer she also appeared at Melodije morja in sonca in Portorož with "Mene je strah".

A year later she won that festival. At the 26th Melodije morja in sonca in June 2003 she sang "Ti ob meni si", written by Aleš Klinar with lyrics by Anja Rupel. The televote went to Rok Kosmač, but the audience in the Avditorij gave her their top marks, and with 22 points to his 20 she took the title. Klinar and Rupel wrote her next EMA songs too: "Nič ne ustavi me" finished fourth in 2004 and "Ostani z mano" fifth in 2006, the title song of her second album, Ostani z mano (2006).

In between she took third place at Slovenska popevka 2005 with "Oprosti mi". She kept coming back to Portorož: "Ko poletje zadiši" was seventh in 2005, "Fešta" third in 2006 with the jury's award for the best stage performance, and "Samo še en dan" third again in 2007. She also recorded "Vem, da tiho spiš" as a duet with Alfi Nipič, and "Fant iz Slovenije" and "Potiskaš me ob tla", the latter written by herself.

Later singles include "Dan kot iz sanj" (2009), "Da bil bi ti" (2010) and, under her married name, "Nisi se bal" and "Sopotnika" (2014). In 2015 she returned to Melodije morja in sonca with "V dobrem in slabem".