Maja Nikolić

Marija Nikolić was born in Niš on 11 April 1975 into a family of musicians and from an early age showed interest in music.[2] At seven years of age, Nikloić started participating in children's music festivals with her brother. She won several first prizes and was offered a recording contract with the Zagreb-based label Jugoton, which she lost due to Warfare in Yugoslavia. Nikolić graduated from Svetozar Marković gymnasium in Niš.

In 1993, she made her solo debut at the Pjesma Mediterana festival in Budva, Montenegro with a song written by Vladimir Graić, who later became her frequent collaborator. Nikolić has also cited Serbian singer Maja Odžaklijevska as her big influence and support at the beginning of her career. She successfully continued competing in the regional music festival as a professional. In 1994, following several festival first prizes, Nikolić released her debut album Sad me pronađi (Find Me Now) under PGP-RTS. In May 1998, she participated at the prestigious international festival Slavianski Bazar in Odessa, Ukraine and Saratov, Russia where she sung "Više nisi moj" and "Đelem, Đelem" arranged by Grajić and Željko Joksimović. As the winner, Nikolić performed at the Moscow Red Square. In the same year she released her sophomore record, Uzmi me (Take Me), which saw commercial success. She held her first solo concert on February 25, 1999 in Sava Centar, Belgrade.

Following her third album Iz inata (Out Of Spite), released in 2000, Nikolić left Serbia and moved to the United States where she performed at Harry's Velvet Room in downtown Chicago, Illinois. She also served as the opening act at Diana Ross' charity concert for disabled children at the China Club in New York City. From there, Nikolić went to Los Angeles, California, where she graduated in jazz singing from the Stella Adler Academy. Nikolić performed "Something To Talk About" from the 2002 movie About A Boy at the 7th Golden Satellite Awards.

Her further releases, Za moju dušu (For My Soul), in 2006 and Crveno (Red) in 2011, failed to achieve significant commercial success. Nikolić also unsuccessfully competed in Serbia's national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, called Beovizija, in 2003, 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018.[3]

In December 2012, Nikolić falsely introduced herself as the president of Nano Consulting Ltd, an offshore company founded in Malta representing Metrowagonmash, to negotiate with Serbian Railways.[4][5]

Two years later, she also claimed to be the president of a company called Špar that, according to her, planned to open 12,000 retail stores across Serbia, offering 120,000 jobs.[6] After media had accused her of trying to plagiarize the multinational franchise SPAR, Nikolić decided to resign in April 2015.[7]

Nikolić has two sons, Novak (b. 1997) and Lazar (b. 2006).

In 2011, she was ejected from the reality TV show Dvor along with Serbian folk singer Miloš Bojanić, due to their anti-semitic remarks.[8] In July 2014, they were eventually acquitted of the charges for hate speech and antisemitism by the Appellate Court in Belgrade.