Dragana Mirković

Early life

Mirković was born in January 1968, in Kasidol, a village near Požarevac, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia, the youngest of two children. As a child, she lived with her parents, her grandparents, and her sister, Dušica. A major musical influence in her youth was her grandfather, Dragutin, who played the accordion. At the age of five sang the Bosnian folk song "Djevojka sokolu zulum učinila". The story of a talented young singer in Kasidol quickly spread and got the attention of the heads of record label "Diskos". They visited Mirković's parents at their house and suggested that she become a professional singer.

1984—90

Mirković's first two releases, Imam dečka nemirnog (1984) and Umiljato oko moje (1985), were solo albums. Her third release, Spasi me samoće (1986), was a collaborative album with the band Južni Vetar. The single of the same name was a major hit and brought Mirković and her band to the top of the Yugoslav music scene. She went on to record four more albums with Južni Vetar: Ruže cvetaju samo u pesmama (1987), Najlepši par (1988) with hit single "Milo moje, što te nema", Simpatija (1989) and Pomisli želju (1990).

Throughout the late 1980s and in 1990, Dragana toured with Južni Vetar (Kemal Malovčić, Šemsa Suljaković, Sinan Sakić, and Mile Kitić).

Also in 1989, Dragana collaborated with pop band Zana with their pop hit "E, Moj Doktore ("Oh, Doctor!")

1991—2000

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". That same year, she held eleven consequent concerts in Belgrade, with an audience of 50,000 people.

Unlike many other Balkans singers, Mirković's career was not severely disrupted by the Yugoslav Wars. 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". She held a concert in Podgorica, Montenegro with 25,000 attendees. She made a stab at acting in 1994 in the comedy film Slatko Od Snova, which premiered on 4 December 1994. She sang in English for the film's soundtrack.

In 1995, Mirković held a big concert in Skopje, Macedonia at the FC Vardar Stadium in front of 30,000 fans. During her 1995 tour, she was seen by over 200,000 people and two years earlier had been declared the third most popular personality of the former Yugoslavia.

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.

2000—08

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".

2011—present

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.

On 17 September 2012, Mirković announced that she would hold a humanitarian concert in Zenica, Bosnia on 7 November in the Arena Zenica. The concert, called "Dragana and Friends for Zenica", also featured singers Hanka Paldum, Boban Rajović, Halid Muslimović, and the band Plavi orkestar. The concert raised around €26,500 (about $36,500 US dollars) for the People's Kitchen. The following month, Serbian tabloids claimed that "local politicians" in Zenica had taken €7,500 of the money to pay for renting out the arena, and another €11,500 for the sound system, leaving only about €7,500 of the money to charity. The tabloids claimed that the majority of the money went for the politicians' personal use. Also the during the concert, Mirković and Hanka Paldum first publicly sang their duet "Kad nas vide zagrljene" (When They See Us Embrace). The song officially premiered one year later on 26 November 2013, when the music video was released. The video shows Dragana in Belgrade singing about Serbia and Hanka in Sarajevo singing about Bosnia. Near the end of the video they meet on Stari Most in Mostar, embrace, and dance. Their video was featured prominently in Serbian and Bosnian media.

During promotion for her album 20 and the filming of a New Year's Eve television special on 8 December 2012, Mirković could have died on when a disco ball fell and shattered on stage in the exact spot where she had been standing seconds earlier. Luckily she had moved when the spotlight in that part of the stage was bothering her eyes.

On 19 December 2013, Mirković, along with Lepa Brena, Severina, Haris Džinović, Aca Lukas and Jelena Karleuša, was a guest at a humanitarian concert by Goran Bregović at the Olympic Hall Juan Antonio Samaranch in the Bosnian capital city Sarajevo for the Roma in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Personal life

Dragana married an Austrian businessman of Bosnian Croat ethnicity, Toni Bijelić, in 1999 and decided to take time off and dedicate herself to her newly formed family. The couple have a son, Marko (born 2000), and a daughter, Manuela (born 2001). They reside in the Austrian capital Vienna. They own a satellite Balkan music channel DM SAT.

Discography