Dragana Mirković

Mirković was born on 18 January 1968, in Kasidol, a village near Požarevac, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia.[1] The youngest of two children, she grew up in the same household as her parents, grandparents and sister Dušica.[2] Mirković has described her upbringing as "Yugoslav", noting the peaceful co-existence between Slavs of different faiths at the time.[3] A musical influence in her youth was her grandfather, Dragutin, who played the accordion.[4] At the age of five, she learned to sing the Bosnian folk song "Djevojka sokolu zulum učinila". Mirković recalled that she cried because of the events portrayed in the song.[4] As a child, she began singing as a soloist in elementary school performances and competitions.[1] Later, she would sing at various celebrations in Kasidol, which caught the attention of record executives.[1]

When she was 14, executives at the Diskos record label approached Mirković's parents with the idea of having her record a song in their studio. The result was Imam dečka nemirnog, released as a full studio album in 1984.[1] Her second album Umiljato oko moje was released in 1985 and sold 250,000 copies.[1] In the mid-1980s Mirković began her collaboration with the music band Južni Vetar,[3] composed of Miodrag Ilić as the bass guitarist, Sava Bojić lead guitarist and Perica Zdravković for keyboard.[5] Spasi me samoće released in 1986, was her first album with the group and sold over 400,000 copies. The single of the same name was a major hit.[1] In addition to Mirković, the musical formation utilized other singers from Bosnia and Serbia and enjoyed wide support from Yugoslavs, as folk music became the best-selling genre of the 1980s.[3] She went on to record four more albums with Južni Vetar: Ruže cvetaju samo u pesmama (1987), Najlepši par (1988), Simpatija (1989) and Pomisli želju (1990). The single "Simpatija" (Crush) became a major commercial success.[6]

Mirković's eighth studio album (and third solo project), Dobra devojka (1991), had two major hit singles: "Umreću zbog tebe" and "Dodaj gas". It was followed by Dolaze nam bolji dani (1992) with multiple hit songs: "Umirem majko", "Pitaju me u mom kraju", "Da, da, da", "O, da li znaš", "Dobro jutro, dobar dan", "Sedmi dan". 1993 saw the release of Mirković's tenth studio album, Do poslednjeg daha, which featured the hit song of the same name, along with "Baš tebe volim ja". More hit songs were featured on her eleventh album, Nije tebi do mene (1994): "Crni leptir", "Čarolija", "Varala bih, varala" and "Opojni su zumbuli". In 1994 Mirković starred in the feature film Slatko od snova, playing the role of a girl who works in a fast food restaurant and dreams of becoming a famous singer.[7]

Mirković released four more albums in the 1990s: Plači Zemljo (1995) with hit singles "I u dobru i u zlu", "Vrati mi se ti", "Uzeo si moja jutra" and "Divlja devojka", Nema promene (1996), with singles "Dušu si mi opio", "To nije tvoja stvar" and "Oči pune tuge", Kojom gorom (1997) with songs like "Poslednje veče", "O na, na, na" and the title track. Her final release of the 1990s was U godini (1999), a collaborative album with Zlaja Band. After the release of her seventeenth studio album, Sama, with hit singles "Svatovi" and the title track, she went on a four-year hiatus. In 2001, Mirković performed live at the Vienna Künstlerhaus as part of a contemporary art exhibition, with many of those in attendance being Yugoslav migrant workers.[8][9]

She returned with 2004's Trag u vremenu. The comeback album featured multiple hit singles including "Tamo gde je milo moje", "Prsten", "Zašto zoro svanjavaš" and "Preživeću". She then released two more albums: Luče moje (My Dear, 2006) with hit singles "Pečat na usnama", "Na kraju", "Luda kao ja", "Nepoželjna" and the title track, then Eksplozija (2008) with songs like "Laste", "Zemljo okreni se", "Ko je ta", and "Život moj".

In the first half of 2011, she released three new songs and a remake of an old song of hers. The new songs, "Drugovi", "Srce moje" and "Jedini", all became hits in the ex-Yugoslav countries. The updated version of her 1991 song, "Umreću zbog tebe" was also well received. Those four songs, along with sixteen new ones are featured on her jubilee twentieth studio album, 20, released 5 December 2012.[10] In 2014, Mirković released a duet with José Feliciano titled "Please Don't Go Away".[11] That same year, she held a concert at Štark Arena in front of 20,000 fans to celebrate her 30th anniversary in the music business.[12] In 2017, she released her latest album, Od milion jedan.[13]

Mirković is known for her "oriental" style of turbo folk. Her performance is often sentimental and songs in which the theme of female suffering in romantic relationships is prominent.[25][26]

• Čvoro, Uroš (2014). Turbo-folk Music and Cultural Representations of National Identity in Former Yugoslavia. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-47242-036-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)