Tinkara Kovač

Tinkara Kovač is a Slovenian singer, pop-rock musician and flautist, born on 3 September 1978 in Koper. She graduated as a professor of flute from the Giuseppe Tartini Conservatory in Trieste, teaches the instrument, and has been called the princess of rock flute. Her music moves between pop, rock and ethno.

At nine she shared the win at the Veseli tobogan children's event in Dekani. Her real start came with songs written by Danilo Kocjančič with lyricists Drago Mislej and Marino Legovič: "Ne odhaja poletje" won Melodije morja in sonca in 1997, and her debut album of the same name went gold and earned two Zlati petelin awards, for pop performer and debutant. Košček neba (1999) went platinum, and in 2000 it brought her four more Zlati petelin awards, among them song of the year for "Ko bo prišel".

EMA, the Slovenian Eurovision selection, has been a regular stop: tenth with "Veter z juga" in 1997, second with "Zakaj" in 1999, fifth with "Sonce v očeh" in 2001 and fourth with "Forever" in 2020. In 2014 she won it with "Spet (Round and Round)" and represented Slovenia at the Eurovision Song Contest, reaching the final through the semi-final.

Her albums include Na robu kroga (2001), O-range (2003), Enigma (2004), aQa (2007), Rastemo (2012), a reworking of songs from Slovenia and the former Yugoslavia, the lullabies of Zazibanke (2013), Dober dan, življenje (2016), the Italian-language Cuori di ossigeno (2017), Neskončnost (2021) and Dueti (2025). At Melodije morja in sonca she won again with "Mars in Venera" (2013), "Bodi z mano do konca" (2019) and "Do roba in še čez" with Anika Horvat (2022).

Tinkara Kovač has played with Jethro Tull and Ian Anderson, who guests on "Med začetkom in koncem", and has worked with Carlos Núñez, Robert Plant, Perpetuum Jazzile and the world-music project Terra Mystica. Anja Rupel is among the lyricists whose words she has sung. She lives on the Karst.