Nikola Karović

Nikola Karović is a singer from Nikšić, Montenegro, born in 1933, who made his name in Yugoslavia with entertainment and folk music, above all with the Mexican songs that were hugely popular there in the 1960s. The eighth child of a white-collar family, he was inspired by his brother Dušan, who sang Neapolitan songs. He finished secondary school, trained as a carpenter and graduated from a music academy, and he also sang Greek songs, Russian romances and folk songs.

Serving in the navy on the ship Galeb, he was heard by Tito in 1954. After Tito heard him with a radio orchestra in Podgorica, Karović auditioned at Radio Belgrade and joined the Art Ensemble of the Yugoslav People's Army as a chorister, later becoming a soloist known for military songs, many by Branko Karakaš, Darko Kraljić and Đorđe Radišić. He sang at the JNA festival and the festival of military songs from 1964 into the 1970s.

His hit "Mala Grkinja" earned a gold record for 100,000 copies sold, and an LP he recorded in Leningrad sold 1.6 million copies. With Slavko Perović he formed one of the best-known duos of Yugo-Mexican music, dressed as Mexicans and singing Mexican songs in Serbo-Croatian; together they recorded an LP and several singles for Jugoton. Their "Mama Huanita" came from the Mexican film "Un día de vida", known in Yugoslavia as "Jedan dan života".

At the 1971 Crna Gora festival Nikola Karović won first prize with "Napuni čaše đevojko lijepa", and at Ilidža he took second jury prize with "Poskoči đevojko" in 1975 and third place with "Crna Goro ponosita" in 1976. He sang for 61 statesmen, which earned him an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as an "elite entertainer", and he told Novosti he had sung for Tito more than a hundred times and performed in 33 countries.

In 2014, on Serbia's Statehood Day, he received the Gold Medal for Merit. His other songs include "Sagapo", "Divni Meksiko", "Malagenija", "Pevaj golubice" and "Jedan dan života". He is married to Daša and they have two sons, Miljan and Marko.