Simona Weiss

Simona Weiss was a Slovenian pop singer and one of the best-selling of her time: she released about 20 albums, which together sold some 500,000 copies. She was born on 29 April 1963 in Kamnica near Maribor and sang pop and folk-pop with a Dalmatian touch, which won her the nickname "queen of the people's hearts".

She began as a lyricist. In 1984 she took part in Miss Slovenije and worked as a fashion model and a disco dancer before her first LP, Simona Weiss, came out in 1987. From 1986 to 1991 she sang several times at Melodije morja in sonca, and in those years she also appeared at festivals in Opatija (1986) and Sarajevo (1987) and at Makfest in Štip, where she won the second audience award in 1991. In 1988 she sang backing vocals for Moni Kovačič at Jugovizija.

After Yugoslavia broke up she became a full-time solo artist and was among the first Slovenian performers to fill large sports halls. Her albums of the 1990s included Mati (1992) and V srcu tvojem je moj dom (1995), and her best-known songs include "Mati", "Tisoč želja", "Ti si ljubezen", "Ena želja", "Vzela sem si Štajerca" and "Pet poljubov".

She was the first woman to win the Viktor popularity award for a music performer, and between 1996 and 2003 she was nominated for six Viktors, more than any other artist. At EMA 2001, the Slovenian selection for Eurovision, she sang "Vse življenje" and finished seventh in the semi-final.

Later she stepped back from music to study psychology. She returned briefly with the album Računam nate in 2003 and stopped singing in 2004; the compilation 20 romantičnih hitov followed in 2005. In 2008 she received a student Prešeren Award for her thesis on Asperger's syndrome. Simona Weiss died on 19 December 2015 in Slovenj Gradec, aged 52. Her songs are gathered here in one playlist.