Šajeta

Šajeta is a pop band from Opatija, formed in 1993 and led by the singer-songwriter Dražen Turina, born on 17 February 1972 in Rijeka, who is himself known by the band's name. With Alen Vitasović and Gustafi, Šajeta was among the first and most important acts of the ča-val, the wave of 1990s pop and rock sung in the Čakavian dialect of Istria and Kvarner. The word šajeta means lightning in Čakavian.

In the early 1990s Turina started a band called Yars, in which he soon began writing songs in Čakavian; it first played as Šajeta & Capra d'oro before settling on Šajeta. The first line-up was Turina and Ivana Jovanić on vocals, Dejan "Deva" Adamović on drums, Robert Petković on acoustic guitar, Nikola Ukić on bass, Alen Grakalić on electric guitar and Zoran Sušanj on keyboards. They played all over Istria and Kvarner, rose high on local radio charts, released the cassette Čestitke i aplauzi in 1994 and were guests at Alen Vitasović's solo concert in Zagreb's Lisinski hall.

The first studio album, Blues berača šparuga (1996, Aquarius Records), was written by Turina and produced by Boris Krainer, with arrangements by Elvis Stanić. The double album Božja beseda i vražje delo (1997) brought the band to a national audience. Istradamus vulgaris (2000) had the hit cover of Novi fosili's "Košulja plava", sung with E.N.I., and "Rege na brege" with Franci Blašković.

Doba vodenjaka (2003) was recorded in Lovran with some forty musicians, with guests Branko Tusta of KUD Idijoti and the Slovenian singer Vlado Kreslin, who sings "Rulet". Kope i špade (2007), produced by Ivan Popeskić, was the band's first album sung entirely in standard Croatian. Other well-known songs are "Party za ekipu", "Evergrin", "Moji koraki" and "Leteća Barbara", and the band was still releasing new songs such as "Idemo na mer" in 2025. Turina has also written books, among them Šparuga bluz (2001).