Zoran Vanev

Zoran Vanev, known as Zoki, is a Macedonian pop-folk singer, born in 1973 in Štip. He started his career in 1993 with the song "Angela" and first made his name at home, singing in Macedonian.

His early albums were Angela (1994), Zapej pesna (1998) and Sekavanja (2001), and in 2001 he also recorded an album of Macedonian old town songs, Makedonski starogradski pesni. Before his big breakthrough he often performed as a one-man band, and in Switzerland he played every weekend with his own orchestra at a well-known discotheque.

About ten years after his debut he turned to the Serbian market. His first Serbian-language album, Lila, came out in 2003 and Momak i po followed in 2004, and they made him popular in Serbia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many of his hits were written by the songwriter Pera Stokanović: "Lila", "Monika", "Nemam brata rođenoga", "Momak i po" and "Južna pruga". "Južna pruga", released in 2004, was first meant for a female singer, but Vanev persuaded its owner to sell it to him, and it became an evergreen. Many of his songs are about Belgrade, and "Banja Luka, Beograd" also names a Bosnian city.

He was then on the roster of Grand Production. By his own account he stepped away from the scene in 2005, when his career was still on the rise, disappointed by haggled-over fees, poorly organised events and a business without contracts. He had already been living in Switzerland, where he stayed with his family, studied natural medicine for five years and became a doctor of natural medicine with his own practice in Zurich.

Music stayed part of his life, and he kept performing now and then on his own terms. In November 2025 he told the Belgrade press that he was back in the city to work on new songs and a return to the scene, with new ballads such as "Pijem" and plans for a modern take on folk music.