Kornelije Kovač

Born in Niš during World War II in the Nazi-occupied Serbia to a Hungarian father and a Serbian mother, Kovač grew up in a prominent artistic family - his grandfather was a conductor, his father a music professor and a violinist, his mother a singer in the opera choir.

Kovač received his early music education at the College of Music in Subotica, after which he attempted to enroll in the Belgrade Music Academy. He didn't pass the entrance exam so he entered the Sarajevo Music Academy of University of Sarajevo where he graduated from the Theory And Piano Department.

A composer, pianist, keyboard player, producer and arranger, Kovač's career as a professional musician started in 1961, when he formed his first band, BKB, which became a prominent jazz trio at the time. In 1963 they entered The Yu Jazz Festival, that took place in Bled (Slovenia).

After conducting the various orchestras in Bosnia, he finally joined Sarajevo's most popular pop band Indeksi. With them he had a two-month-long tour in Russia. In 1968, he moved to the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, where he founded Korni Grupa. As a composer and a musician, he won many music contests that took place in former Yugoslavia. With Korni Grupa he entered following music festivals in Europe:

• 1969 - Singing Europe (Netherlands), voted the most original entry
• 1970 - Rock Festival Katowitze (Poland)
• 1972 - Montreux (Switzerland)
• 1974 - Eurovision Song Festival (Brighton, United Kingdom)

In 1979, Kovač moved to England where he collaborated in various projects, such as: the 1980 Reading Rock Festival as the keyboardist of the Jenny Darren Band. Among the prominent British musicians with whom Kovač worked while in the UK, included:

• Bernie Marsden, guitar player of "White Snake"
• Hans Zimmer, composer
• Paul Jones, ex-singer of Manfred Mann
• Andy Pask, bass player of Landscape

Kovač has written music for theatre, movies and television. Like the composer of pop and rock music he has been greatly successful. His songs were released on numerous LP-s in Yugoslavia, Spain, France, the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway etc. Many of them were Golden or Platinum Records. Since 1979, he has participated in many projects in Spain, as a producer, composer or arranger.

He was married to Spomenka Stojanović until Spomenka's death with whom he has three daughters: Aleksandra, Kristina (both of whom are also involved with music) and Anja.

On 19 January 2011, Serbian broadcaster RTS announced that Kovač and his two daughters, Aleksandra and Kristina, will each compose a song and present a singer, who is representing Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011.[1]

• Kornelije Kovač at IMDb
• Interview, Blic
• Prva pesma slučajni plagijat, Blic