Relja Popović

Relja Popović was born on August 2, 1989 in Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia and grew up in the Paviljoni neighborhood of New Belgrade. He was raised by his mother, Zoja Begolli (née Đoković), who was the primaballerina at the National Theatre in Belgrade, after his father, Srđan Popović, had died when Relja was two years old.[1][2] According to Popović, he was introduced to hip-hop by his older brother, Miša, with artists such as Eminem, Jay-Z and Juice, and started writing songs in middle school. Before finishing high school Popović was injured in a gunfire and had his kidney and spleen removed.[3] He graduated from the Faculty of Media and Communications at the Singidunum University an also attended the Academy of Arts.[4]

In late 2014, he began dating singer Nikolija Jovanović after Elitni Odredi collaborated with her on the single "Alkohola litar".[5] The couple welcomed a daughter, named Rea, on 26 September 2016.[6]

In 2005, him and his childhood friend, Vladimir Matović, formed the pop rap group Elitni Odredi. They received fame with the song Moja jedina (My Only) the following year. Elitni Odredi released their first and to date only album in 2010 under Gold Production, titled Oko svet (Around The World), through which they acquired further success.

In 2015, Elitni Odredi took a permanent hiatus to focus on their solo projects. In April, Relja released his first solo single "Beograd još živi" (Belgrade Still Lives). Same year he released three more singles "Samo hoću da se napijem" (I Just Want To Get Drunk), "Opet te nema" (You're Missing Out Again) featuring Boban Rajović and "Pakao od žene" (Hell of a Woman). The following year he collaborated with Cvija and Coby on "Crni sine" (Black Son) in May, but also released "Trošim pare" ([I'm] Spending Money) in October. In 2017, Popović released "Lom" (Ruckus) in February, "Samo jako" (Keep It Strong) with Coby and turbo-folk singer Stoja in April and latino influenced "Adrenalina" ([From] Adrenalin) in December. He released "Latino Evropa" (Latino Europe), "Dolce Vita" and "Mi Amor" in May, June and December 2018, respectively.

In March 2020, Popović established the record label imprint Made in Blkn Records in distribution deal with IDJTunes.

In 2003, Popović made his on screen debut in Vladimir Perišić's short film Dremano oko, which was elected for Cinefoundation at the Cannes Festival. He had also collaborated with the director on his existentialist feature film Ordinary People in 2009 and subsequently received the Heart of Sarajevo award at the Sarajevo Film Festival for the best male actor .

Popović also appeared in the box office success The Parade by Srđan Dragojević in 2011.