Tozovac

Predrag Živković, known as Tozovac, was one of the most famous Serbian folk singers and composers, and also an accomplished accordion player, entertainer and TV host. He was born on 22 January 1936 in Kraljevo and took his nickname from his father, Svetozar "Toza" Živković, a well-known accordionist who kept a kafana in Mataruška Banja, where the boy listened to the old folk songs.

His father was killed in 1941, and on the accordion he left behind Predrag began earning a living, playing at weddings at the age of ten. He also learned drums and trumpet, finished grammar school and in 1976 graduated from the Higher School of Economics in Belgrade. In the 1960s he first worked as an accordionist accompanying better-known singers, then teamed up with composers such as Duško Radetić, Bane Popov and Dušan Karaklajić and became a star himself.

He recorded his first singles on 11 June 1965 and became known in 1967 with "Ispod lipe, kraj potoka"; the same year he recorded four singles in duet with Silvana Armenulić. His great popularity began in 1971, when he won the Pesma leta festival with "Mirjana", and the next year he won again with "Oči jedne žene". Over a forty-year career he recorded more than 30 singles and 20 albums and played over 300 concerts across Yugoslavia, Europe and North America, with the biggest in Belgrade's Dom sindikata and Zagreb's Vatroslav Lisinski hall. He also wrote songs for colleagues, among them Silvana Armenulić and Predrag Gojković Cune.

In the 1980s he co-hosted the hugely popular TV show Folk parada on Television Belgrade with Cune and the actress Zlata Petković, and around 2000 the Grand Show on TV Pink. Later hits included "Danče", "Ljubav je za sve godine" and a duet with Lepa Lukić, and he held a celebrated three-singer concert with Cune and Miroslav Ilić. He appeared in films such as I Bog stvori kafansku pevačicu (1972) and Balkan ekspres 2 (1989), held a solo concert in the Sava Centar in 2012 and received the Golden Microphone of Radio Belgrade in 2018 and the gold Medal for Merits of the Republic of Serbia in 2019.

Tozovac died on 6 April 2021 in Belgrade of complications from COVID-19 and was buried in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens at the New Cemetery. His playlist here is his compilation Moje najdraže pesme, with "Siroma' sam, al' volim da živim", "Krčma stara", "Oči jedne žene" and "Neznanka".