Victory

Victory, often billed as Skupina Victory, is a Slovenian pop group from Ljubljana, founded in 1987. It started out as Šarm, a band that grew out of the earlier group Diamant, and took the name Victory because it played so often abroad. Its music spans pop, pop rock and narodnozabavna (folk-pop) songs.

The band has long been built around the singer and bass player Robert "Robi" Dragar, the singer and keyboard player Boštjan Zupančič, who joined in 1990/91, the singer and guitarist Miran "Miki" Vlahović and the singer and drummer Boštjan Vajs, with Tomo Primc on accordion. Miro Tomažič and Simon Koprivnikar left in 1991, and Cveto Golob is also among the former members. In 2000 the band added a larger line-up, the Victory Gala orchestra.

Their first album, Victory, came out in 1993, followed by Ukal bi (1995), Zapri oči (1997), Hočeš me (1999) and Metulj (2003). Festivals made the songs known. At Melodije morja in sonca they first appeared in 1994 with "Poletne mačke", and in 1998 "Hočeš me ali nočeš me" won the audience award. At EMA "Zapri oči" came fourth in 1998 and "Le povejte ji" seventh in 1999, and "Helena" won the organiser's first prize at Vesela jesen in 1998.

In the 2000s they sang at the Hit festival with "Ona je kot sladka kava" (2000), "Party boys" (2003), written by Andrej Šifrer and Martin Štibernik, and "Kako naj čas ustavim" (2004). They returned to EMA in 2004 with "Kako naj vem" and in 2005 with "Daleč od oči", and to Melodije morja in sonca in 2014 with "Skupaj s teboj".

Many of their best-loved songs were singles away from the festivals: "Zelena dežela", "Tekila iz tvojega popka", "A ti", "Ne joči se", "Mi mamo se fajn" (2009), "Upaj si" (2010), "Dan brez tebe" (2011), "Živeti spet" (2012) and "Še vedno sva ista" (2019).

In 2025 Victory marked 35 years on stage with two new songs: the ballad "Pest soli" and then "Džua", whose title is the Swahili word for sun. "Džua" was recorded partly in Kenya, with the singer Faith Odera Mourine Weells on backing vocals, and its video, directed by Matjaž Feguš, passed 400,000 views in about two weeks.