Đorđe Novković (; 2 September 1943 - 6 May 2007) was a Croatian

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

of partly Serbian descent who was known for his work in

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

and

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. Novković composed more than 2,500 songs and sold approximately 20 million records. He is also known as the father of popular Croatian singer Boris Novković.

Biography

Novković was born to a Serb father Vukašin and a

Croat The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...

mother Danica during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in the village of Vladimirci on the German-occupied territory of what only a few years earlier used to be

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () h ...

's Drina Banovina. He moved to

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

at an early age, so his musical talent was discovered very early, and he joined the musical school in Sarajevo at the age of 6. After graduating

conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or Choir, choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary d ...

from Musical Academy in Sarajevo, he founded a band Pro Arte during the fall of 1967. In 1968, Đorđe's wife Ozana gave birth to their son Boris, and the family moved to

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

. Boris later became a rock singer-songwriter, but he split abruptly with his father at the age of 19. Đorđe's first hit came in 1969 with the song "Više se nećeš vratiti" (''You Will Not Return'') performed by Mišo Kovač and sold in half a million copies, and a later version in 1985 had similar success. In 1973, Pro Arte merged with another Sarajevo pop group Indexi, but the experiment lasted only several months. Pro Arte existed in continuity until 1980, as well as off-and-on throughout the 1980s. In 1989 Novković moved to live in Rovinj,

. After Pro Arte, Đorđe Novković switched to writing songs, creating material for some of the hits of the former

. He collaborated with performers such as Mišo Kovač, Neda Ukraden,

Zdravko Čolić Zdravko Čolić (, ; born 30 May 1951) is a Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian-Serbian Pop music, pop singer and widely considered one of the greatest vocalists and cultural icons of the former Yugoslavia. Favourably compared to Paul McCartney and T ...

, Tomislav Ivčić, Tereza Kesovija,

Ivica Šerfezi Ivan "Ivica" Šerfezi (1 December 1935 – 29 May 2004) was a Croatian pop singer hailing from Zagreb. Ivan "Ivica" Šerfezi started singing in dance halls, and his first real success was a duet with Domenico Modugno at the Maksimir Stadiu ...

, Gabi Novak, Srebrna krila, Žanamari Lalić and others. After the

death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

of President of Yugoslavia

Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito ( ; , ), was a Yugoslavia, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who served in various positions of national leadership from 1943 unti ...

, he composed the music for the song "Druže Tito mi ti se kunemo" (''

Comrade In political contexts, comrade means a fellow party member. The political use was inspired by the French Revolution, after which it grew into a form of address between socialists and workers. Since the Russian Revolution, popular culture in t ...

Tito, We Swear to You''), which was then performed by Zdravko Čolić which was then sold in 350,000 copies. Novković composed music for Sanja Trumbić's famous thank-you schlager " Danke Deutschland" produced in January 1992 by Hrvatska radiotelevizija as a show of gratitude to Germany for their role in international recognition of Croatia's independence. In 1993, he wrote the song " Don't Ever Cry" for Put, the first Croatian representative in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

. Since 1997, he co-owned and managed the Croatia Records label, together with Miroslav Škoro. In 2000, he moved to Zagreb again. In 2003, Novković gained a lot of popularity as judge of '' Story Supernova Music Talents'', a reality show for aspiring musicians similar to '' Popstars'' aired on Nova TV.

Death

He died suddenly at the age of 63, from an apparent stroke, in Zagreb. In a Roman Catholic funeral ceremony he was buried in Zagreb's Mirogoj Cemetery.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Novkovic, Dorde 1943 births 2007 deaths Croatian songwriters Croatian male songwriters Yugoslav musicians Musicians from Sarajevo Bosnia and Herzegovina people of Croatian descent Bosnia and Herzegovina people of Serbian descent Croatian people of Serbian descent Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery Indexi Award winners