Ceca (singer)

Ceca was appointed the honorary president of the Party of Serbian Unity (SSJ) formed by her late husband, Željko Ražnatović (Arkan). She has not been politically active and claims to have only accepted the position in honor of her deceased husband. After clashing with the president of the party, Borislav Pelević, on many issues, Ceca withdrew herself from politics completely.[1]

On the night of 17 March 2004, Ceca and Kristijan Golubović (close associate of Arkan) gathered demonstrators in front of the Government building in Belgrade to speak about the situation in Kosovo and the burning of more than 300 Serbian Orthodox churches in Kosovo.[1]

Ceca is the president of the "Third Child" humanitarian fund. Her organizations prime goal is to increase the birthrate in Serbia and to help families who already have three or more children. She has held several humanitarian concerts raising money for food, clothing, and sundries to benefit the Serbs in Kosovo, after the unrest in Kosovo in March 2004.[1]

While performing for the Serb Volunteer Guard (SDG), a paramilitary force also known as Arkan's Tigers, in Erdut on 11 October 1993 during the Croatian War of Independence, she met her future husband, Željko "Arkan" Ražnatović, the unit commander and a career criminal, through pop singer Oliver Mandić. When the Party of Serbian Unity (SSJ) was formed, she was asked by Arkan to perform.[6] He was married at the time, and the divorce that ended that marriage was finalized two months before their wedding. Arkan proposed to Ceca on 7 January 1995 and they married a month later, on 19 February. Ceca's parents were initially against the marriage. Their wedding was broadcast on television, made headlines in newspapers, and was portrayed by Serbian media as a "Serbian fairytale". They had two children, a son, Veljko, in 1996 and daughter, Anastasija, in 1998.[7] In between the two births, on 30 September 1997, Ražnatović was indicted for war crimes of genocide against the Bosnian Muslim population, for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.[8] Arkan was shot on 15 January 2000 in a Belgrade hotel by four gunmen. Despite having been shot in the head, he remained alive for a brief period of time, but died in Ceca's arms in the backseat of the car that was taking them to the emergency room. After fifteen months of mourning, she made her first public appearance in April 2001 in a television interview, saying of her husband:

"A part of me died that day... I will always love him, and only him, I'm sure of that..."

When the Serbian reformist Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić was assassinated on 12 March 2003, it prompted Serbian authorities to launch Operation Sabre. Ceca's Belgrade home was raided as part of the crackdown on the network of criminals and nationalists behind the assassination.[9] The raid led to a thorough investigation. She was arrested on 17 March 2003 and charged with illegal possession of multiple firearms. Ceca was one of dozens of people detained in the crackdown and she spent three months in prison. She claimed the firearms were brought to the house by her late husband.

In 2011, Ceca pleaded guilty to embezzling millions of euros from the transfers of players from the football club FK Obilić, which she inherited from her late husband, and again illegal possession of eleven weapons. Ceca had sold fifteen players of FK Obilić to several international football clubs (such as Fenerbahçe). Serbian state prosecutors accused her of taking for personal use an illegal share in the sale of fifteen players. Ceca denied having been involved in any kind of illegal activities, saying that her late husband was responsible for FK Obilić and that the eleven illegally possessed weapons found in her home also belonged to him.[10] Under a plea bargain, Ražnatović was ordered to spend eight months under house arrest, avoiding the maximum sentence that the charges against her could have carried, 12 years in prison.[11][12]

Ceca is officially banned from entering Croatia due to being proclaimed persona non grata. In one interview she stated that because of that, she always remains careful while picking her travel routes.[13]

• Cvetak zanovetak (1988)
• Ludo srce (1989)
• Pustite me da ga vidim (1990)
• Babaroga (1991)
• Šta je to u tvojim venama (1993)
• Ja još spavam u tvojoj majici (1994)
• Fatalna ljubav (1995)
• Emotivna luda (1996)
• Maskarada (1997)
• Ceca 2000 (1999)
• Decenija (2001)
• Gore od ljubavi (2004)
• Idealno loša (2006)
• Ljubav živi (2011)
• Poziv (2013)
• Autogram (2016)

• To Miki, To (1990)
• Babaroga (1991)
• Kukavica + Tašmajdan (1993)
• Hala Pionir (1995)
• Marakana (2002)
• Live Ušće (2006)

• London MIX (2005 )
• C – Club (2012)