Tereza Kesovija

Tereza Kesovija is a Croatian singer, born Tereza Ana Kesovija on 3 October 1938 in Dubrovnik. She grew up in Konavle and Dubrovnik, where she had her first music lessons, won a young musicians' competition in Ljubljana in 1958 and graduated in flute from the Music Academy in Zagreb. In 1962 she won her first international contest, in Saint-Vincent in Italy, and toured the Soviet Union.

In 1965 she moved to France without speaking French and began in cabarets. In 1966 she sang "Bien plus fort" for Monaco at the Eurovision Song Contest, sharing last place, and made her debut at the Olympia in Paris. Her first big French success was "La chanson de Lara" (1967), from the film Doctor Zhivago, and in 1968 she returned to the Olympia with Enrico Macias.

Early in the 1970s Tereza Kesovija moved back to Zagreb. At the Split festival she sang "Nono, moj dobri Nono" (1969), later recorded in Italian by Claudio Villa and in French by Mireille Mathieu, and "Sunčane fontane" (1974). In 1972 she won the Yugoslav selection with "Muzika i ti" and finished ninth at Eurovision in Edinburgh. She was named best female singer six years in a row, from 1974 to 1979, and late 1970s hits included "Što je ostalo od ljubavi", "Zaboravi ako možeš" and "Sviraj mi, sviraj".

She played the Olympia again in 1988, released as Live à l'Olympia. During the war of the 1990s she gave concerts in Italy, France and Germany to raise money for Croatia, and in 1994 she published her autobiography, Libertas. In 1999 France made her a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres. She marked 45 years on stage with Mojih 45 skalina (2005) at the Lisinski Concert Hall, and on 16 November 2007 she returned to the Olympia after nineteen years. Zaustavi vrijeme (2007) followed.

She received the Porin for lifetime achievement in 2009, and in 2017 won the Porin for best entertainment album for Oči duše (2016). A second autobiography, To sam ja, came out in 2014, and in 2022 she gave a retrospective concert in Split.