Zdravko Colic

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Biography

Zdravko Colic (; ; born 30 May 1951) is a Bosnian Serb pop singer popular across the entire area of former Yugoslavia . Originally from Sarajevo , he became popular in the 1970s, and he's lived in Belgrade , Serbia since 1992.

Early life

Born in Sarajevo , People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina|PR Bosnia and Herzegovina , Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia|FPR Yugoslavia to Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina|Herzegovinian Serb parents, police administrator Vladimir from Vlahovici village near Ljubinje and homemaker Stana Colic from Trebinje ,; Story , 19 June 2007 young Zdravko showed an early interest in sports. He was active as a footballer in FK Željeznicar 's youth system, before switching to track and field where he also excelled. At one point he was able to run a 100 meter dash in 11.3 seconds, and continually placed high at various track meets he entered (at one of them he finished just behind future star Nenad Stekic ). Still, a pro sports career wasn't to be as Colic lacked the Spartan discipline required to go on.

Zdravko attended Vladimir Peric Valter elementary school in the neighbourhood he grew up in - Grbavica (Sarajevo)|Grbavica . He also attended music school where he studied guitar playing. As a hobby he took part in various school recitals, and also acted in a couple of plays at Pionirsko pozoriste (Youth Theatre).

Early career

Early years

Since the youngest age Colic also showed an interest in music. With friend Braco Isovic, he played guitar at informal and impromptu park gatherings through which they became somewhat locally known as "Cola i Isa sa Grbavice". At the time Colic was trying to emulate pop schlager music that dominated Yugoslav and Italian festivals.

His first significant public singing experience occurred in 1968 when he spent a couple of days at the Montenegrin coast for the Republic Day#29 November in the former Yugoslavia (1945–1990)|Republic Day Staying in the house his father owned in the coastal community of Baošici , 17-year-old Zdravko got persuaded by a friend Nedim Idrizovic to enter the amateur signing competition in nearby Bijela . He won second prize singing " Lady Madonna " by The Beatles .

Encouraged by the unexpected success, soon after returning to Sarajevo, Colic entered his first band - a group called Mladi i lijepi . That engagement didn't last long, however, because around the time he graduated high school in 1969, he moved to the more established Ambasadori , a band whose two incarnations he'd end up staying with for next two and a half years.

Ambasadori

At the time of Colic's arrival, Ambasadori employed a strange setup: they were essentially a military cover band as all the musicians, except for bandleader Slobodan Vujovic, were Yugoslav People's Army|army recruits. Their repertoire centred around 1960s rhythm and blues|rhythm & blues ( Chicago (band)|Chicago , Otis Redding , Wilson Pickett , etc.) along with obligatory Yugoslav hits of the day and years past, and finally even a few original numbers written by the bandmembers thrown into the mix. Over time, the group started getting more gig offers, which presented a problem since it's army part wasn't available for many of them and those offers had to be declined.

Seeing their opportunities limited by the strange situation, Vujovic and Colic decided to step out and form Novi ambasadori in 1970, bringing in drummer Perica Stojanovic, organist Vlado Pravdic , saxophonist Lale Stefanovic, and bassist Zlatko Hold. With the almost all new lineup, the band also expanded its reportoire so that in addition to R& B they now also played covers of Led Zeppelin , Blood, Sweat & Tears , Creedence Clearwater Revival , etc. For the summer of 1970, Novi ambasadori scored a month-long gig with Indexi in Dubrovnik , which was their first tour-like experience. Next step was competing at the 1971 Vaš šlager sezone annual festival in Sarajevo where they finished in 7th place with a song "Placem za tvojim usnama" that songwriter Zdenko Runjic claimed to have composed and officially signed his name under, despite the fact that it was a blatant rip-off of The Tremeloes ' "Suddenly You Love Me" (which actually is a cover of Riccardo Del Turco's "Uno tranquillo" ). No one from the festival noticed this plagiarism and the band avoided the controversy. The song was even released on a 7-inch single "Placem za tvojim usnama" / "Zapjevaj" by Beograd Disk and sold surprisingly well. The performance at Vaš šlager sezone was also significant since it marked the band's first television appearance, exposing them to a much larger audience. One of the people in that TV audience was Kornelije Kovac , an already influential and established figure in Yugoslav music circles, who immediately got intrigued by Colic's "clean tenor and good stage presence".

Colic was soon offered a "bench role" with Indexi, to fill in for their singer Davorin Popovic , and even performed with them a couple of times.

Korni grupa

In the meantime, during summer of 1971, Colic finally met face to face with Kornelije Kovac who came to see Colic play in Mostar and invited him to join his Korni Grupa|Korni grupa as replacement to their departed singer Dado Topic . Unlike Amabasadori, Korni grupa performed their own material and generally had a much more studious and serious approach to music, so Colic immediately jumped at the opportunity.

On 10 September 1971, twenty-year-old Colic left his hometown and moved to the capital Belgrade in order to join his new band. However, his stint with Korni grupa ultimately proved to be very short and largely unsuccessful as he never meshed well enough with the rest of the group musically, finding it hard to fit into their progressive rock style. He recorded three tracks with them, "Kukavica, "Gospa Mica gazdarica", and "Pogledaj u nebo", all of which got released on the 7-inch single by PGP RTB. Track "Gospa Mica gazdarica" managed to create minor controversy due to the slightly risque lyrics written from the perspective of a young man imploring his older female landlord to allow him into her bed - a nod to Colic's life at the time since he was living away from home in sublet apartments. Due to numerous complaints, the song got taken off radio playlists.

Soon, however, Colic and Kovac agreed that it would be better for Zdravko to go solo. Only six months upon his arrival to Belgrade, he returned to Sarajevo determined to give solo career a try.

Solo career

Early activity: Schlager festivals

On 15 April 1972 Colic's first solo move was taking part in the Vaš šlager sezone competitive festival in Sarajevo. He won the third audience prize as well as the interpretation award with Kemal Monteno -written song "Sinoc nisi bila tu" that was originally meant to be sung by Josipa Lisac who opted out at the last moment.

Right away, under Kovac's guidance Colic managed to establish a fair amount of prominence as a solo act - and on 20 May 1972 the two appeared as guests on the very popular TV Belgrade variety show Obraz uz obraz hosted by Milena Dravic and Dragan Nikolic . The same year, Colic made further appearances at the Split, Croatia|Split festival (with song "Stara pjesma"), Priština festival, and Skopje Festival (with song "Moj bol"), before embarking on a tour of Soviet Union together with Indexi , Bisera Veletanlic , Sabahudin Kurt , and Sabina Varešanovic .

Eurovision and more festivals

Then came the first big break that launched him on the road to stardom. By winning at the Opatija festival with song "Gori vatra" written by Kemal Monteno, Colic got to represent Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|SFR Yugoslavia at the Eurovision Song Contest 1973|1973 Eurovision Song Contest on 7 April 1973 in Luxembourg (city)|Luxembourg . The song placed poorly, but became a massive hit at home.

Riding the wave of exposure Eurovision appearance afforded him, Colic continued entering competitive festivals throughout SFR Yugoslavia over the next two years with plenty of success. At Hit parada festival in Belgrade on 23 November 1974, he won with the song "Ona spava", composed and written by Kornelije Kovac. Next year, 1975, Colic bagged a few more festival wins with Kovac's songs - Beogradsko prolece with "April u Beogradu", and Vaš šlager sezone with "Zvao sam je Emili". Other songs he performed at various festivals in those years were "Bling blinge bling" (1973 Vaš šlager sezone, composed by Zdenko Runjic), "Ljubav je samo rijec" (1974 Beogradsko prolece, composed by Vojkan Borisavljevic ), and "Zelena si rijeka bila" (1974 Vaš šlager sezone, composed by Kemal Monteno).

Around the same time he also signed a deal with the German arm of Warner-Elektra-Atlantic|WEA record label and did two singles for that market. German producers were of the opinion that his name is too difficult to pronounce for their consumers so they marketed him as Dravco . Soon, however, Colic decided not to pursue his options in that country further mostly because he was unwilling to move to Germany .

Debut album

His first solo album was Ti i ja (You and I) released in 1975 by Jugoton. Closely overseen by Kornelije Kovac, the album brought Colic more hits like "Vagabund", "Igraš se vatrom", and "Loše vino" (written by Arsen Dedic and Goran Bregovic ). Cover sleeve was done by Dragan S. Stefanovic, another collaborator who would remain with Colic for years to come. Colic's image especially appealed to girls and women, something that would remain a staple of his entire career. The same year, cashing in on his sudden popularity upswing, PGP RTB released a compilation of his festival singles under the name Zdravko Colic .

Despite, achieving great prominence already, Colic continued appearing at the occasional festival such as the Zagreb one in 1976 where surprisingly he finished in fourth place singing "Ti si bila, uvijek bila". At the end of that year he went on a Yugoslavia-wide tour with Indexi . After the Belgrade concert, the measure of his sudden fame was on public display during autograph-signing at the Jugoton store as the cordon of girls rushed the store, breaking window glass in attempt to get closer to him.

Next year, 1977, he did the festival circuit for the last time. First in Zagreb with "Živiš u oblacima" followed by an appearance at the Festival of Patriotic Songs also in Zagreb where he performed "Druže Tito mi ti se kunemo". That song was soon released on a 7-inch single record and sold in 300,000 copies.

Mass popularity

His second album, Ako prideš bliže (If You Come Closer), released later that year was even more successful, creating mass hysteria among girls. The copies were flying off the shelves as 50,000 sold in first two weeks alone. The album sprouted some of his best known and liked songs such as "Glavo luda", "Zagrli me", "Juce još", "Pjevam danju, pjevam nocu", "Jedna zima s Kristinom", and "Produži dalje".

On 1 April 1978, he started an ambitious tour of SFR Yugoslavia with Lokice dance group in support of the album that had already sold 150,000 copies. His image and performing style were slightly altered as under Lokica Stefanovic 's guidance, he started to dance and move on stage, becoming in a way Yugoslavia's equivalent to then globally popular John Travolta . Colic also started to play the guitar occasionally on stage. Putujuci zemljotres (Traveling Earthquake Tour) produced and organized by Maksa Catovic moved all over the country, soon becoming a phenomenon the likes of which the country had not seen before. The scenes of screaming girls rushing the stage were repeated in city after city. The tour's climax took place in Belgrade at Red Star FC Marakana|stadium on 5 September 1978 with 70,000 people in attendance despite the fact that Zdravko already played two sold out shows in Belgrade a few months earlier on 4 and 8 April at Hala Pionir . Supporting Colic on stage that night were Chris Nicholls on keyboards and Dado Topic on bass guitar with old favourites Kornelije Kovac, Arsen Dedic, Kemal Monteno, Josip Bocek, Trio Strune and RTV Belgrade singing quintet appearing as guests. Zdravko and the massive tour essentially became a cultural phenomenon transcending musical boundaries such that in the lead up to the big Belgrade concert journalist Dušan Savkovic and film director Jovan Ristic decided to make a movie about Colic. Savkovic wrote a rudimentary screenplay, but the movie ended up being a 90-minute feature documentary titled Pjevam danju, pjevam nocu that follows Colic from Belgrade concert onwards and looks back on his career up to that point. Two days after the Belgrade concert, Colic was in his hometown Sarajevo at Koševo Stadium for the tour's grand finale, however the rain interrupted much of the concert and the whole thing turned out to be a little anticlimactic. By the end of its promotion cycle, the album sold more than 700,000 copies and with later re-releases during the 1990s went over the million mark.

Colic also got the attention of Ziggy Loch, director of German WEA, who after watching the Belgrade concert immediately wanted to renew his contract. Singles with songs "Jedina" and "Zagrli me" were released for the German market as well as the disco single "I'm Not a Robot Man" / "Light Me". However, Zdravko refused to move to Germany for the second time, and instead on 14 November 1978 went to serve the mandatory Yugoslav People's Army|Yugoslav Army stint. Twenty seven years of age at the time, Colic was assigned to a unit in Valjevo , before getting transferred to Belgrade, and finally Požarevac . After serving 10 months, he got out on 14 September 1979.

1980s

Sometime after coming back into civilian population Colic started work on his third album that came out in the Spring 1980. Titled Zbog tebe (Zdravko Colic album)|Zbog tebe it brought more hits as Zdravko further cemented his place as the most popular pop performer in SFR Yugoslavia.

In 1983, Colic moved from his hometown Sarajevo to Ljubljana where he started a private business with Goran Bregovic through their Kamarad label. Colic then lived in Zagreb for a couple of years before moving to Belgrade in 1990 where he resides to this day.

Comeback

The Yugoslav wars caused a long pause, and in the late 1990s he embarked on a comeback, and regained much of his popularity.

In 2010, he had a big concert on the Asim Ferhatovic Hase Stadium in Sarajevo , within his Kad pogledaš me preko ramena tour, in front of over 60,000 people.

On 25 June 2011, he had the biggest concert of his career on Usce, in Belgrade with over than 100,000 people. His biggest concert to date, it commemorated his 40 year career.

Personal life

Colic holds a degree in economics from the University of Sarajevo . http://web.archive.org/web/20060514015532/ http://www.geocities.com/fensi88/int78.html

He is married and is the father of two daughters.

Discography

Singles

"Sinoc nisi bila tu" / "Tako tiho" (1972)

"Stara pisma" / "Pod lumbrelom" (1972)

" Gori vatra " / "Isti put" (1973)

"Blinge blinge blinge bling" / "Julija" (1973)

"Zelena si rijeka bila" / "Nedam ti svoju ljubav" (1973)

"Dome moj" / "Ljubav je samo rijec" (1974)

"Madre Mia / "Rock n roll himmel" (released in Germany) (1974)

"Alles was ich hab / "Lampenfieber" (released in Germany) (1974)

"Ona spava" / "Zaboravi sva proljeca" (1975)

"April u Beogradu" / "Svitanje" (1975)

"Zvao sam je Emili" / "Sonata" (1975)

"Ti si bila, uvijek bila" / "A sad sam ja na u redu" (1976)

"Ljubav ima lažni sjaj / "Balerina" (1977)

"Živiš u oblacima / Zašto spavaš" (1977)

"Loš glas / "Ne mogu biti tvoj" (1978)

"Light me" / "I'm not a robot man" (released in Germany) (1978)

"Druže Tito, mi ti se kunemo" / "Titovim putem" (1980)

Studio albums

Ti i ja (You And Me) (1975)

Ako prideš bliže (If You Come Closer) (1977)

Zbog tebe (Zdravko Colic album)|Zbog tebe (Because Of You) (1979)

Malo pojacaj radio (Turn Up The Radio A Bit) (1981)

Šta mi radiš (What Are You Doing To Me? ) (1983)

Ti si mi u krvi (You Are In My Blood) (1985)

Zdravko Colic (album)|Zdravko Colic (1987)

Da ti kažem šta mi je (To Tell You What I'm Going Through) (1990)

Kad bi moja bila (If You Were Mine) (1997)

Okano (Zdravko Colic album)|Okano (2000)

Carolija (Enchantment) (2003)

Zavicaj (Homeland) (2006)

Kad pogledaš me preko ramena (When you look at me over the shoulder) (2010)

Live albums

Belgrade Arena (2005) (live double-CD)

Compilations

Pjesme koje volimo (The Songs We Like) (1984

Poslednji i prvi (The First and the Last) (1994)

Zauvek (Forever)(1998)

Zauvek 2 (Forever 2) (1999)

7X Cola Box Set (2000)

Balade (The Ballads)(2002)

The Best of Zdravko Colic (double-CD set)(2004)

The best of Zdravko Colic (2008)

Copyright Citations

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