Žiga Rustja

Žiga Rustja is a Slovenian singer-songwriter, born on 11 September 1988 in Koper and raised in Parecag near Lucija. He writes pop-rock ballads in a singer-songwriter style and has been described as a pop songwriter with a touch of rock.

He started singing in his school choir, and one of his first appearances was at the Črtica festival. Around 1998 or 1999 he sang in the backing chorus of "Bit" by Zmelkoow and appeared in its video. Moving from primary school to grammar school, he founded the alternative rock band noom8 with friends, first as bassist and singer, later as singer only. The band was active from 2004 to 2010 and peaked in 2008, when it played Rock Otočec. Its successor, Kontinoom, ran from 2011 to 2014, and he later became a member of Eni Big Band.

He wrote his first song, "Letijo", in 2004; it was released ten years later. His first solo single, "Zaprem oči", came out in spring 2013 with his first video. With the producer Jan Baruca, known as Yan Baray, he also recorded "Na kavču", "Istrska", "Ker je poletje" and "Tuj kraj", and from "Nisi sam" onwards he worked with the producer Andrea F. He was among the nominees for the Zlata piščal award for performer of 2015.

In December 2014 Dallas Records released his debut album, Z moje perspektive: nine songs written entirely by him and an "Intro" by Andrea F. He presented it on 6 December at the Kulturni dom in Izola, with Drago Mislej - Mef and Yan Baray as guests. The second album, Čas, followed in 2018.

Žiga Rustja sang "Ne sodim sem" at Melodije morja in sonca in 2015, "Pozabi na vse" at Poprock in 2017 and "Ko padeš" at Slovenska popevka in 2021. Among his later songs are "Kralj zelenega peresa", "Pridi, greva" and "Nov list", a duet with Anika Horvat. He studied Italian at the Faculty of Humanities in Koper, trained his voice for five years at Studio Cantica and has worked as a radio host on Radio Capris since 2014. He names John Mayer and Drago Mislej as his musical role models.