Vlada Divljan

Vladimir "Vlada" Divljan (Владимир "Влада" Дивљан; 10 May 1958 – 5 March 2015), was a Serbian singer and songwriter.

Divljan got interested in music in 1968, after a Drago Diklić concert in Tučepi, a seaside resort where he went on a holiday with his family.

After coming back to Belgrade he asked Zdenko Kolar and Boža Jovanović, two of his friends and neighbors, to form a band.

The first instrument Divljan played was a small mandolin because he was a fan of Dubrovački trubaduri.

Later he got a guitar, Kolar bought a bass and Boža Jovanović used a tin barrel as a drum with metal sticks made by Kolar's father.

The band was called Faraoni (Pharaohs) since Divljan had a necklace from Egypt, given by his grandmother, with a Tutankhamun medallion.

Since there was a popular band from Koper named Faraoni, the band was renamed to Holipe.

Both Divljan and Kolar attended guitar course at the RU "Braća Stamenković" held by professor Branko Perišić who later appeared in the "Sve laži Sveta" video.

To have rehearsals the three would skip school.

The rehearsals were held at the boiler-room in their building.

The three had rehearsals there for about ten years.

They held a free gig at the Dadov's upper floor.

The first serious band Divljan formed after graduation, in 1976 called Merlin soon renamed to Zvuk Ulice (Sound of the Street).

The band featured Divljan (guitar, vocals), Zdenko Kolar (bass), Dragan Mitrić (keyboards), Kokan Popović (drums) and Bora Atić (saxophone) The band was a combination of melodic rock, hard rock and jazz rock.

The band performed cover versions of The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix songs and their own songs.

The band performed at Zaječar Guitar festival and Novi Sad BOOM festival.

They also had some sessions at Radio Belgrade but due to Kokan Popović's departure to serve the army, the band ceased to exist.

In late 1979, Divljan, a college student, met his close high school friend Srđan Šaper at a party.

Šaper, a student at University of Belgrade's Faculty of Medicine and his friend Nebojša Krstić decided to form a band and Divljan jokingly offered to be the band's drummer.

He took Šaper and Nebojša Krstić to his building's basement where he had rehearsals and where Kolar's and his equipment was placed.

Having realized that the two could not play bass and guitar as they planned, Divljan invited his old friends Kolar on bass and Jovanović on drums, so the band had musician and non-musician factions.

The band was called Dečaci (The Boys).

At the same time Dečaci met Dragan Papić, photographer and journalist, who became the band's creative mentor, who published Dečaci photos in a well known youth magazine Vidici.

The photos had subtitles featuring gay-hinting comments.

It was a conceptual band without recordings.

While the public got interested in the band through photos and graffiti which could be seen on Belgrade's walls, the band had to show some proof of existence.

He was known as the frontman of the Serbian and Yugoslav rock band Idoli, one of the bands which initiated the Yugoslav new wave on the music and cultural scene of Yugoslavia in the 1980s, as well as for his solo works.

Dečaci were renamed to Idoli (The Idols) on 1 March 1980 at the first rehearsal on which Divljan wrote the first song "Retko te viđam sa devojkama" ("I Rarely See You With Girls"), one of the first gay-hinting songs ever written in Yugoslavia.

In a month's period "Retko te viđam sa devojkama" and "Pomoć, pomoć" were recorded and released as a present with the April release of "Vidici" magazine.

The positive critics opened many doors to Idoli including an opportunity to sign a contract with Jugoton a major Yugoslav record label.

By the time Maljčiki single came out Idoli were already working on the Paket aranžman (Package Deal), a various artists compilation which proved to be one of the most influential Yugoslav rock releases.

The next release was the VIS Idoli EP featuring six new songs.

Divljan appeared as writer and lead vocalist for most of the tracks.

The EP was sold in about 200.000 copies.

For the recording of the first album Kokan Popović, Zvuk Ulice drummer, became the new Idoli drummer.

Odbrana i poslednji dani was released in early 1982.

The album represents a conceptual effort dealing with an anthropological approach towards orthodoxy.

Divljan beside guitar played piano and provided lead vocals for most of the tracks.

Odbrana tour proved to be a success unlike the album which was sold in 50.000 copies which.

The record company considered a failure even though it was pronounced the best album and best album design of 1982.