Severina

Severina Vučković (born 21 April 1972), better known mononymously as Severina, is a Croatian singer-songwriter and actress.

Severina's career was launched in the late 1980s when she began performing in local festivals and competitions.

One of her first major performances came in 1989 in her hometown of Split.

In 1990, she moved to Zagreb where she won a radio competition that landed her an album.

That same year she won the first prize at the Zagreb Festival with the song "Sklopi oči muzika dok svira" (Close Your Eyes While the Music Is Playing).

She soon became the host of the show Top Cup on Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT), which she hosted for a year, and at the end of the year she went on her first tour in Australia.

In 1990, she released her first studio album titled Severina.

The album served as her breakthrough to the national platform, with the hit single "Vodi me na ples" (Take Me to Dance).

The songs "Tvoja prva djevojka" (Your First Girlfriend) and "Kad si sam" (When You're Alone) from her next eponymous record, released in 1992, with composer Zrinko Tutić, became huge hits among younger fans.

The leading song from her third studio album, Dalmatinka (Dalmatian Woman), became a sensation and captured the emotions of many at the time of release.

In the song, Severina sang about her love for her native Dalmatia, the color of white and Virgin Mary.

The album had total of 10 songs among which were "Ne bi' ti oprostila" (I Wouldn't Forgive You), "Ne spavaj mala moja" (Don't Sleep, My Baby Girl; Bijelo Dugme cover), "Paloma nera" (Black Dove) and others.

Both "Paloma nera" and the title track became number one on national top list.

Her fourth album, Trava zelena (Green Grass), achieved major success.

The title track was the most popular song of the year and Severina's primacy on the Croatian media platform rose as a result.

It was another collaboration with Tutić.

Moja stvar (My Thing) was her fifth studio album.

The album was influenced by rock sounds.

The title track was written and composed by Severina herself.

The album Djevojka sa sela (Country Girl) was composed and written partly by Tutić and partly by Severina.

The title track is one of her biggest hits.

It was used by the Croatia national football team as their unofficial anthem during their campaign at the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Djevojka sa sela was her last album composed by Tutić and his production company Tutico.

They parted ways following its release due to a contract dispute.

Severina's seventh studio album, Ja samo pjevam (I Just Sing), was a continuation of the pop sounds heard on her previous albums.

It had total of 10 songs.

The composer of this album was Đorđe Novković with whom Severina started working on her next album.

Following the success of her 2001 album Pogled ispod obrva (The Gaze Underneath the Eyebrows), Severina's 2002 concert tour and live album Virujen u te (I Believe in You) won her an award for best selling live album along with a nomination for hit song of the year.

Virujen u Te was her first major tour in which she performed in most of the big cities on the Balkans including Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ljubljana, Slovenia and confirmed her status of one of the most popular Croatian music artists.

This was her first major project and public appearance after the sex-tape scandal which occurred in 2003.

The album was influenced by jazz music.

After a two-year break, she released her ninth studio album Severgreen in 2004.

In 2006, the Croatian weekly Nacional listed her among the 100 most influential Croats, calling her "the only bona fide Croatian celebrity".

She represented Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, held in Athens, Greece, with the song "Moja štikla", finishing 12th.

She won the award "Zlatna ptica" for the best selling artist of the decade in Croatia.

In 2006, she won the Dora festival with the song "Moja štikla" and represented Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens, Greece, finishing in 13th place.

The song caused some controversy in Croatia when several journalists and musicologists claimed the song resembled the music of Serbia.

However, prominent Croatian ethno musicians such as Dunja Knebl and Lidija Bajuk disagreed, and both the song's composer Boris Novković and Severina herself have claimed that the song includes Croatian folk music influences from the Dalmatian Hinterland such as ganga and rere singing and lijerica instrumentation.

After the contest, she started working on her tenth studio album together with Goran Bregović, one of the most successful music composers in the Balkans.

In 2015, she was the most searched person on Google in Croatia and Slovenia.