Viktorija

Viktorija, born Snežana Mišković on 19 December 1958 in Vučitrn, is a Serbian rock singer known for her raspy voice. The daughter of teachers, she started playing the accordion at four, danced ballet and studied piano at music school. In 1976 she came to Belgrade to study at the Faculty of Economics, and sang in the choir of KUD Branko Krsmanović and briefly with the band Pop Polifonija.

In 1981 she formed the girl group Aska with Snežana Stamenković and Izolda Barudžija. Aska represented Yugoslavia at the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest with Sanja Ilić's "Halo, halo", finishing 14th, released Disco Rock (1982) and Katastrofa (1984), and in 1983 gave twenty concerts in Kenya. In 1985 she sang on the YU Rock Misija single "Za milion godina". About 25 singers passed through Aska between 1984 and 1986, when she ended it.

In 1986 she recorded "Šarene ulice" and formed a band named Viktorija, whose name soon became her own. Its musicians included keyboardist Aleksandar Vuksanović, later known as Aca Lukas. Spavaćeš sam (1988), produced by Theodore Yanni with Laza Ristovski and Bojan Pečar among the players and Bora Đorđević of Riblja Čorba and Milan Mladenović of Ekatarina Velika as guests, brought "Barakuda", written by Kiki Lesendrić of Piloti, "Spavaćeš sam", "Sami" and "Daj, ne pitaj". In 1998 it was ranked 49th in the book YU 100. Readers of Pop Rock voted her best female singer of 1989, and in 1990 she was named female singer of the year at MESAM and played Timișoara, Romania, with Riblja Čorba, Valentino, Galija and Bajaga i Instruktori.

Ja verujem (1991) became a diamond record with "Rat i mir (Ljubav je...)", a duet with Kiki Lesendrić, "Arija", "Od Splita do Beograda (Ove noći)" with Dino Dvornik and "Samo teraj ti po svome". In 1992 she held her first solo concert at Sava Centar, with Zdravko Čolić among the guests. Ja znam da je tebi krivo (1995), with songs co-written by Vojislav Aralica and Rambo Amadeus, was her last studio album before she announced her retirement in 1997.

She came back briefly in 2000 with the covers album Nostalgija and the song "Senke uspomena" for the film of the same name, finished sixth at Beovizija 2005 with "Kaži, sestro", and in 2014 held a farewell concert at Sava Centar. Since then Viktorija has mostly written songs for other singers.