Zdenka Kovačiček

Zdenka Kovačiček is a jazz and rock singer from Zagreb, born there on 16 January 1944, and one of the most important figures of the Croatian music scene. Zagreb has been the centre of her life on stage since childhood: at five she joined the Zagreb Youth Theatre, where she learned to act, sing and dance, and toured Europe with its plays. Many call her the Croatian Janis Joplin.

In 1957, at thirteen, she formed the duo Hani with Nada Žitnik. They sang on television, made a film and toured Europe with stars such as Peter Kraus, Lou van Burg and Bill Haley. After the duo split she spent years singing with her own band in European clubs, including American clubs at US bases in Germany, and found her love for jazz, soul, blues and gospel. Back home she worked with Zagreb's best jazz players, Boško Petrović, Miljenko Prohaska and Damir Dičić, and in 1970 she won the expert jury's first prize at the Opatija festival with Prohaska's "Zbog jedne melodije davne".

After festival prizes in Zagreb and Belgrade and a year-long tour of the Soviet Union in 1972, she turned to rock with the Zagreb trio Nirvana, singing "Klik tema broj 1" before seven thousand people at the BOOM festival in Ljubljana in 1973. She sang Baba Urša in more than 200 performances of the rock opera Grička vještica, worked with the YU jazz-rock selection and with Time, Bijelo dugme and Telephone Blues Band, and in 1976 founded Zdenka Express, whose "Hello, Mr. Elton John" was recorded live at BOOM '76. She was named the best female voice in the country.

Her albums include Frka (1984), the English-language Love Is a Game (1989) and two Happy Jazz albums with Vanja Lisak, the second with a version of Josipa Lisac's "Dok razmišljam o nama". In 1999 she began working with composer Marko Tomasović: "Žena za sva vremena" brought her back to the top, and "Vrati se u moje dane" won the Grand Prix of Zagrebfest in 2000. For Ja živim svoj san she won the Porin for best female vocal in 2002.

In 2008 she marked fifty years on stage with the musical S ljubavlju, Janis, singing Janis Joplin, and in 2021 she received the Porin for lifetime achievement. The playlist gathers her recordings, from "Kobra" to her jazz standards.