Peter Lovšin

Peter Lovšin, also known as Pero Lovšin, is a Slovenian rock singer, songwriter and journalist, born on 27 June 1955 in Ljubljana. As the co-founder of Pankrti, the leader of Sokoli and a solo artist, he has recorded some twenty studio albums in a career of more than forty years.

He graduated from the Faculty of Sociology, Political Science and Journalism in Ljubljana in 1980 and worked for years as a journalist, editor and reporter before becoming a full-time musician in the mid-1990s. In 1977 he founded Pankrti with the sociologist Gregor Tomc, with whom he wrote the lyrics. The band, active until 1987, was a model for the later punk scene and the new wave movement in Yugoslavia, and won the 7. sekretar SKOJ-a award for the album Dolgcajt in 1980. Pankrti later reunited for their 30th and 40th anniversaries, selling out the Tivoli hall and the Stožice arena, where in 2017 they were joined by the former Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock.

In the late 1980s Lovšin formed the rock band Sokoli, known for its hard sound. Their album Marija pomagaj (1990) went gold with more than 25,000 copies and remains one of the best-selling Slovenian records, and in 1993 the band won the Zlata nota awards for band and album of the year. Among Sokoli's hits were "Marija pomagaj", "Moja mama je strela", "Čist nor" and "Ko so češnje cvetele".

His solo career began with Hiša nasprot sonca (1993), recorded with Vitezi o'bložene mize, a backing band that came partly from Big Foot Mama, once his opening act. He helped several young acts on their way, among them Big Foot Mama, Maja Keuc and Legalo Kriminalo. Songs such as "Hiša nasprot sonca", "Sam en majhen poljub", "Najboljši par", "Julita" and "Dobri profesor" became widely sung, Zadnji križarski pohod won the Zlati petelin for album of the year in 1998, and he recorded Osmi sekretar SKOJ-a 88-98 with the Croatian punk band Kud Idijoti. In 2000 he recorded the football anthem "Slovenija gre naprej" with Vlado Kreslin and Zoran Predin, writing its lyrics himself.

He recorded Izlet and the English-language side project Happy Hour (2007) in Jamaica with The Wailers, Bob Marley's band, and the producer Brian Jobson. Hudičev sod (2010), an album rooted in Slovenian and world folk music, spent four months as the best-selling record by a Slovenian artist, and Za spremembo (2012), made with Španski borci, also reached listeners across the former Yugoslavia with "Ljubav na granici". In 2014 the newspaper Dnevnik named him among the ten best rock singers in Slovenia.

In 2017 he released Območje medveda, with the single "Ti lahko" recorded with Big Foot Mama, and celebrated forty years of music with a sold-out concert at Cankarjev dom and more than fifty shows on tour. The documentary Pero Lovšin - Ti lahko by Jani Sever premiered in 2018. He also wrote the anthems of the Slovenian national football team and the club Olimpija.