Ivo Robić (28 January 1923 – 9 March 2000) was a Croatian singer-songwriter.

Domestic career

Robić began his career as a soloist with the Radio Zagreb

Orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

, while studying at the same time in

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 ...

. He performed 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 ...

on "Krugovalna postaja Zagreb" in an

Esplanade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...

hotel in Zagreb,

Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia (, NDH) was a World War II–era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist Italy. It was established in parts of Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, occupied Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941, ...

. During his career in what was then

Socialist Republic of Croatia The Socialist Republic of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Hrvatska, Социјалистичка Република Хрватска), commonly abbreviated as SR Croatia and referred to as simply Croatia, was a ...

, he made more than one hundred records, mostly singles and '' schlagers''. In his own country, the most memorable of his many schlagers might be "Vraćam se Zagrebe tebi" (Coming Back to You, My Zagreb), "Ta tvoja ruka mala" (That Little Hand of Yours), and "Tiho plove moje čežnje" (Silent Sail of My Yearnings).

International achievements

A pioneer of popular Croatian music from the early 1950s on, Robić was an artist who successfully pursued both domestic and international careers for almost half a

century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

. When he began, he was the only

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

from Croatia whose records were available in the record shops of

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and the rest of the world. Robić was nicknamed "Mister Morgen" following the success of his first international hit, "Morgen" (which means "tomorrow"), in 1959. The optimistic song was the first collaboration between Robić and

Bert Kaempfert Bert Kaempfert (born ; 16 October 1923 – 21 June 1980) was a German orchestra leader, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, arranger, and composer. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records and wrote the music for a number of well-kno ...

. Following its success in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, the German-language version became a #1 song in

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and #13 hit on the pop

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

( ''Billboard'' Hot 100) in the

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, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

. An English set of lyrics, "One More Sunrise", bearing no resemblance to the German lyrics, sung by

Leslie Uggams Leslie Marian Uggams (; born May 25, 1943) is an American actress and singer. After beginning her career as a child in the early 1950s, she garnered acclaim for her role in the Broadway theatre, Broadway musical ''Hallelujah, Baby!'', winning a T ...

, reached #98 on the same charts. It has also been performed by many other artists. Robić was active in recording for Germany's Polydor label. He performed and collaborated with Kaempfert, Freddy Quinn, and

Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, and comedian. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Cool", he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of ...

. Of the Kaempfert composed international hit of 1966 ''

Strangers in the Night "Strangers in the Night" is a song composed by Bert Kaempfert with English lyrics by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder. Kaempfert originally used it under the title "Beddy Bye" as part of the instrumental score for the movie ''A Man Could Get ...

'' he sang the Yugoslav and German versions ''Stranci u Noći'' with lyrics by Marija Renota and ''Fremde in der Nacht'' with lyrics by Kurt Feltz. Robić's other international hits are "Muli-Song" (1960), "Mit 17 fängt das Leben erst an" (1960), "Ein ganzes Leben lang" (1962), "Rot ist der Wein" (1966), and "Ich zeig' dir den Sonnenschein" (1971).

References

External links

* Morgen * Strangers in the night
Morgen, in Croatian and German languages

"Stranci u noći",(Strangers in the night), in original Croatian language

Ivo Robić - Biografija

Ivo Robić's recordings
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Robic, Ivo 1923 births 2000 deaths People from Garešnica Croatian pop singers Croatian songwriters Croatian male songwriters 20th-century Croatian male singers Yugoslav male singers Polydor Records artists Laurie Records artists Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery Musicians from Zagreb