Severina

Severina is a Croatian singer and actress, born Severina Vučković on 21 April 1972 in Split and known simply by her first name. Her songs range over pop, turbo-folk, rock, disco and ethno sounds.

She began singing as a child: with KUD Mozaik she played Carmela in the musical Frane Štrapalo, and in 1982 she won Dječji prvi pljesak in Split with "Moja Milena". She went to the music high school in Split but left it to sing, and in 1990 she won Radio Zagreb's Demo X contest, which brought her a first album, "Severina" (1990).

Working with producer Zrinko Tutić, she released a second "Severina" (1992) and "Dalmatinka" (1993), whose title song became one of her signatures, along with "Paloma nera". "Trava zelena" (1995), with the duet "Ti si srce moje" with Žera of Crvena Jabuka, "Moja stvar" (1996) and "Djevojka sa sela" (1998) followed; the last one's title song was used by Croatia's national team as an unofficial anthem at the 1998 World Cup. "Ja samo pjevam" (1999), made with Đorđe Novković, brought "Ante", and "Pogled ispod obrva" (2001), her best-selling album, brought "Mili moj", "Mala je dala" and "Virujen u te", which won the Grand Prix at Melodije hrvatskog Jadrana. On 6 July 2000 she sang to more than 20,000 people at the Stari plac stadium in Split.

In 2006 she won Dora with "Moja štikla", composed by Boris Novković, and sang it for Croatia at Eurovision in Athens. "Zdravo Marijo" (2008), made with Goran Bregović, gave her "Gas, gas" and "Tridesete", and at Sunčane Skale in 2009 it was named album of the year and "Tridesete" song of the year. The singles "Brad Pitt" (2011) and "Italiana" (2011), with Ana Bebić, were both nominated for the Porin for hit of the year, "Dobrodošao u klub" (2012) carried "Uzbuna", and "Halo" (2019) includes "Unaprijed gotovo" with Petar Grašo.

As an actress she played the title role in the rock opera Karolina Riječka (2003) in Rijeka and Baroness Castelli in Gospoda Glembajevi (2007), and on screen she appeared in Duhovi Sarajeva and The Last Serb in Croatia (2019). She has also recorded with Saša Matić, Miligram, Goran Karan, Kemal Monteno and Željko Bebek.

Severina received Croatia Records' Zlatna ptica in 2002 as the best-selling female artist of the decade and won the Večernjakova ruža for female performer of the year in 2001 and 2002. Nacional named her among the 100 most influential Croats in 2006, and in 2023 she became a judge on RTL's Superstar.