Oto Pestner

Oto Pestner is a Slovenian tenor, composer and arranger of popular and narodnozabavna music, born on 4 January 1956 in Celje. He is one of the most prominent figures of Slovenian popular music, known for an exceptionally durable voice and a career that began when he was a child.

He made his first recording early in 1968 at the Radio Celje studio, with his father's ensemble, and that year Jugoton released his first EP, led by "Najrajši sem pri očku". He sang on the children's TV show Pionirski TV studio and the radio show Veseli tobogan, won the children's festival in San Remo, and in 1971 won the interpretation award at the youth festival in Subotica with "Poslednje zbogom".

His first big wins came at Slovenska popevka. He won the audience's first prize in 1971 with "Trideset let" and in 1972 with "Mati, bodiva prijatelja", and in 1977 "Vrača se pomlad" took both the audience prize and the international jury's first prize. At Melodije morja in sonca "Tople julijske noči" won the audience's first prize, and in 1980 he won again with "Melodije sonca in morja", sung with Majda Petan. He was a regular at the Yugoslav festivals too: Opatija, Beogradsko proleće, Vaš šlager sezone in Sarajevo with "Tvoja pisma" (1972) and Split with "Ča su pisma" (1972), "Ljubav je kad nekog voliš kao ja" (1979) and "Fatamorgana" (1983). In 1995 he was second at EMA with "Oda ljubezni", a duet with Irena Vrčkovnik.

From 1970 to 2008 he led the vocal group New Swing Quartet, and he was a member of Alpski kvintet from 1986 to 1991 and again in 1995 and 2015. From 2010 to 2014 he sang with Pro Anima Singers, recording three albums, and later joined Omar Naber, Uroš Perić and Tina Gorenjak in the project Trip to Las Vegas. He has performed with the Golden Gate Quartet, Bobby McFerrin, B.B. King, Perpetuum Jazzile and Oliver Dragojević, among many others.

His discography runs to dozens of albums for ZKP RTV Ljubljana, Jugoton, Helidon, Menart, Dallas and others, some in German as Otto Pestner. The Christmas album Božič za dva (2001) is his most successful, with 40,000 copies sold. Among his best-known songs are "Vse je lepše, ker te ljubim", "Trideset let", "Bisere imaš v očeh", "Tople julijske noči", "Moja dežela", "Ciganska kri" and "Dan za zaljubljene".

Oto Pestner won the Zlati petelin in 1996 as both pop singer and narodnozabavna singer, and again in 1997. He received the Viktor for lifetime achievement in 2008, the Order of Merit of the Republic of Slovenia in 2022 and the Zlata piščal for lifetime achievement in 2024, and in 2026 he was named an MMS legend.