Zdravko Čolić

Zdravko Čolić

Zdravko Čolić (Cyrillic: Здравко Чолић) (born May 30, 1951 in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia) is a Bosnian Serb singer, popular across the entire area of former Yugoslavia.

Early life

Born to police administrator Vladmir and homemaker Stana Čolić both of whom came to Sarajevo from Trebinje vicinity in Herzegovina, young Zdravko showed an early interest in sports. He was active as a footballer in FK Željezničar's youth system, before switching to track and field where he also excelled. At one point he was able to run a 100 meter dash in 11.3 seconds, and continually placed high at various track meets he entered (at one of them he finished just behind future star Nenad Stekić). Still, a pro sports career wasn't to be as Čolić lacked the Spartan discipline required to go on.

Zdravko attended Vladimir Perić Valter elementary school in the neighbourhood he grew up in - Grbavica. He also attended music school where he studied guitar playing. As a hobby he took part in various school recitals, and also acted in a couple of plays at Pionirsko pozoriste (Youth Theatre).

Music career

Early years: Ambasadori, and Korni grupa

Since the youngest age Čolić also showed an interest in music. With friend Braco Isović, he played guitar for informal and impromptu park gatherings through which they became somewhat locally known as Čola i Isa sa Grbavice. At the time Čolić was trying the emulate pop schlager music that dominated Yugoslav and Italian festivals.

His first significant public signing experience occured in 1968 when he spent a couple of days at the Montenegrin coast for the November 29th holiday (communist Yugoslavia's republic day). Staying in the house his father owned in the coastal community of Baošići, Zdravko was persuaded by a friend to enter the amateur signing competition in nearby Bijela. He won second prize singing "Lady Madonna" by The Beatles.

Encouraged by the unexpected success, soon after returning to Sarajevo, Čolić entered his first band - a group called Mladi i lijepi.

That engagement didn't last long, and around the time he graduated gymnasium in 1969, he moved to Ambasadori, a band whose two incarnations he stayed with for two and a half years. At the time of Čolić's arrival Ambasadori were essentially a military cover band: all the musicians, except for bandleader Slobodan Vujović, were army recruits. The band's repertoire centred around 1960s rhythm & blues (Chicago, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, etc.) along with obligatory domestic hits, and even a few original numbers written by the bandmembers. Over time, they started getting more and more gig offers, which presented a problem since the band's army part wasn't available for many of them and those offers had to be declined.

Seeing their opportunities limited by the strange situation, Vujović and Čolić decided to step out and form Novi ambasadori in 1970, bringing in drummer Perica Stojanović, organist Vlado Pravdić, saxophonist Lale Stefanović, and bassist Zlatko Hold. With the almost all new lineup, the band also expanded its reportoire so that in addition to R&B they now also covered Led Zeppelin, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Creedence Clearwater Revival, etc. For the summer of 1970, Novi ambasadori scored a month-long gig with Indexi in Dubrovnik. Next step was competing in Vaš šlager sezone annual festival in Sarajevo where they finished in 7th place with a song "Plačem za tvojim usnama", which Zdenko Runjić claimed to have composed and officialy signed his name under, however, the song was a blatant copy of The Tremeloes' "Suddenly Alone". No one from the festival noticed this plagiarism and the band avoided the controversy.

As a result of the band's activities Čolić's own profile was raised as well. He met Kornelije Kovač, an already influential and established figure in Yugoslav music circles, who invited him to join his Korni grupa as replacement to their departed singer Dado Topić.

On September 10, 1971, twenty-year-old Čolić left his hometown and moved to the capital Belgrade in order to join his new band mates. However, his stint with Korni grupa ultimately proved to be very short and largely unsuccessful as he never meshed well enough with the rest of the group musically, finding it hard to fit into their progressive rock style. He recorded three tracks with them, "Kukavica, "Gospa Mica gazdarica, and "Pogledaj u nebo", all of which got released on a 7-inch single by PGP RTB. Only six months upon his arrival to Belgrade, he returned to Sarajevo determined to give solo career a try.

Solo

On April 15, 1972 his first solo move was taking part in the Vaš šlager sezone competitive festival in Sarajevo. He won the third audience prize as well as the interpretation award with Kemal Monteno-written song "Sinoć nisi bila tu" that was originally meant for Josipa Lisac. The same year, he made further solo appearances at the festivals in Split, Priština, and Skopje, before embarking on a tour of Soviet Union together with Indexi, Bisera Velentanlić, Sabahudin Kurt, and Sabina Varešanović.

Then came a big break that launched him on the road to stardom. By winning at the Opatija festival with song "Gori vatra", Čolić got to represent SFR Yugoslavia at the Eurovision Song Contest 1973. The song placed poorly, but became a massive hit at home.

Riding the wave of exposure Eurovision afforded him, Čolić continued entering competitive festivals throughout SFR Yugoslavia over the next two years with plenty of success. At Hit parada festival in Belgrade on November 23, 1974, he won with the song "Ona spava", composed and written by Kornelije Kovač. Next year, 1975, Čolić bagged a few more festival wins with Kovač's songs - Beogradsko proljeće with "April u Beogradu", and Vaš šlager sezone with "Zvao sam je Emili". Other songs he performed at various festivals were "Bling blinge bling", "Ljubav je samo riječ" (composed by Vojkan Borisavljević), and "Zelena si rijeka bila" (composed by Kemal Monteno).

His first solo album was Ti i ja (You and Me) in 1975. His second album, Ako priđeš bliže (If You Come Closer), from 1977, sold 900,000 copies, and sprouted some of the most well known and liked songs. He was like Yugoslavia's equivalent to John Travolta since he also was a good dancer. He also played the guitar occasionally. Čolić reached his pinnacle at the beginning of the 1980s, when he was arguably the most popular pop performer in the former Yugoslavia.

In 1983, Čolić moved from his hometown Sarajevo to Ljubljana where he started a private business with Goran Bregović through their Kamarad label. Čolić then lived in Zagreb for a couple of years before moving to Belgrade in 1990 where he resides to this day. After the war and a long pause, he embarked on a comeback, and regained much of his popularity. It is possible that he may get a house in Sarajevo.

Čolić holds a degree in economics from the University of Sarajevo. [1] He was once asked in an interview if he was Bosnian or Serbian. He simply replied, "I'm an economist from Sarajevo."

He is married and is the father of two daughters.

Discography

Singles

• Sinoć nisi bila tu/Tako tiho (1972)
• Pod lumbrelom/Stara pisma (1972)
• Gori Vatra/Isti Put (1973)
• Blinge blinge blinge bling/Julija (1973)
• Nedam ti svoju ljubav/Zelena si rijeka bila (1973)
• Dome moj/Ljubav je samo riječ (1974)
• Madre Mia/Rock n roll himmel (released in Germany) (1974)
• Alles was ich hab/Lampenfieber (released in Germany) (1974)
• Ona spava/Zaboravi sva proljeća (1975)
• April u Beogradu/Svitanje (1975)
• Zvao sam je Emili/Sonata (1975)
• Ti si bila, uvijek bila/A sad sam ja na u redu (1976)
• Ljubav ima lažni sjaj/Balerina (1977)
• Živiš u oblačima / Zašto spavaš (1977)
• Loš glas / Ne mogu biti tvoj (1978)
• Light me/I'm not a robot man (released in Germany) (1978)
• Druže Tito, mi ti se kunemo/Titovim Putem (1980)

Albums

• Ona spava (She sleeps) (1975)
• Ti i ja (You And Me) (1975)
• Ako priđeš bliže (If You Come Closer) (1977)
• Zbog tebe (Because Of You) (1980)
• Malo pojačaj radio (Turn Up The Radio A Bit) (1982)
• Šta mi radiš (What Are You Doing To Me?) (1983)
• Ti si mi u krvi (You Are In My Blood) (1985)
• Zdravko Čolić (1988)
• Da ti kažem šta mi je (To Tell You What I'm Going Through) (1990)
• Kad bi moja bila (If You Were Mine) (1997)
• Okano (2001)
• Čarolija (Enchantment) (2003)
• Belgrade Arena (2005) (live double-CD set)
• Zavičaj (Homeland) (2006)

Compilations

• Pjesme koje volimo (The Songs We Like) (1991)
• Prvi i posljednji (The First and the Last) (1995)
• Zauvek (Forever)(1998)
• Zauvek 2 (Forever 2) (1999)
• 7X Čola Box Set (2000)
• Balade (The Ballads)(2002)
• The Best of Zdravko Čolić (double-CD set)(2004)

External links

• Official site