Maraaya are a Slovenian duo founded by Marjetka Vovk and Aleš Vovk (Raay) in 2014. The group's name is a combination of its members' names, while its pronunciation means "She has Raay" in Slovene. Raay is credited as co-writer and producer for many Slovenian artists. He is credited as the composer on Slovenia's 2014 Eurovision song " Round and Round", and they both contributed to Slovenia's 2014 Junior Eurovision song with "

Nisi sam (Your Light) Slovenia selected their first Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2014 entry through an internal selection. On 16 September 2014 it was revealed that Ula Ložar would represent Slovenia after having open auditions. Before Junior Eurovision Internal s ...

" and 2015 Junior Eurovision song with "Prva ljubezen" (The First Love). In 2013 Raay co-wrote and produced the music for " My Way Is My Decision", a hit song performed by Slovenian alpine skier

Tina Maze Tina Maze (; born 2 May 1983) is a retired Slovenes, Slovenian FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, World Cup Alpine skiing, alpine ski racer. She is the most successful Slovenian ski racer in history with a career that culminated with two gold medals at th ...

. Raay co-wrote, produced and recorded first two singles (" Muza" and " Heart of Gold") for BQL, a Slovenian brothers duo. In September 2017 they signed a contract with

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment and record label Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "Record label#M ...

and became the first Slovenian artists to sign with Warner Music. After BQL, they are the second Slovenian artist to reach the top position on the national official singles charts

SloTop50 SloTop50 is the official Slovenian singles chart provider established by SAZAS (The association of composers and authors for protection of copyright of Slovenia) in 2013. It presents weekly, monthly and yearly singles charts, following 61 vario ...

, with at least two singles: " Here for You" and "

Diamond Duck In cricket, a duck is a batsman's dismissal with a score of zero. A batsman being dismissed off their first delivery faced is known as a golden duck. Etymology The term is a shortening of the term "duck's egg", the latter being used long befor ...

Career

2014: First single

The duo of producer Raay (real name: Aleš Vovk) and vocalist Marjetka Vovk (née Jurkovnik), both previously members of the turbo-folk group Turbo Angels, was formed in 2014 when they released their first single " Lovin' Me". This song was among the top 20 most selling singles in Italy and a big success at

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

music charts in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

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 ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. It was also listed on the Polish "Bravo Hits Zima 2015" compilation. This song was among the top ten selling singles in Italy and was ranked at 34th place in the German DJ's Dance Top 100 singles chart. "Lovin' Me" charted in many countries' official singles charts: it was ranked in 13th place in the Slovenian

chart, in 52nd in the Italian

FIMI The Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana (FIMI) or the Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy. It was established in 1992, when ...

chart and in 83rd in the Belgian (

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

) Ultratip 100 chart.

2015: Eurovision

They represented

in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2015 The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the 60th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, Austria, following the country's victory at the with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" by Conchita Wurst. Organised by the European Broa ...

with their second single " Here for You". They performed in the second semi final where the song gathered 92 points and earned 5th place. In the grand final the song received 39 points and came 14th. Like "Lovin' Me", "Here For You" charted in many countries' official singles charts: it topped the Slovenian

chart, it charted at 23rd in the Austrian

Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired on Tuesdays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as ...

chart, at 24th in the Slovakian Rádio Top 100 chart, at 48th in the Belgian (

) Ultratip 100 chart, at 10th in the Swedish Sverigetopplistan Heatseekers chart and at 18th in the Finnish Suomen virallinen lista digital chart. This song also topped the German Hitfire singles chart. In September 2015 they presented and released their third single " Living Again" at the

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

live charity concert in

Cankar Hall The Cankar Centre or Cankar Hall () is the largest Slovenian convention, congress and culture center. The building was designed by the architect Edvard Ravnikar and was built at the southern edge of Republic Square in Ljubljana between 1977 and 1 ...

, Ljubljana. It charted at 12th place in the official Slovenian singles

chart, without any international success.

2016: Fourth single

They presented and released their fourth single " Nothing Left for Me" as special guests at the

Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 Slovenia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "Blue and Red". written by Marjan Hvala, ManuElla, Manuella Brečko, and Leon Oblak, and performed by Brečko herself under her artistic name ManuElla. The Slovene partic ...

. It charted at 18th place in the official Slovenian singles

chart, without any international success.

2017: Fifth single ft. BQL

On 26 May 2017, Maraaya featuring BQL premiered their fifth single " It's Complicated" and the video for the song at the same time on Cankar Street in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

. This single was officially released on 7 June 2017 and a Croatian version was released two days later. On 22 September 2017, Maraaya released their sixth single "

" for the worldwide market with help of Warner Music. In Slovenia, the song was officially released on 2 October 2017. The song made its

debut and peaked the chart immediately.

Discography

Personal life

Raay and Marjetka are a married couple and have two sons, named Vid and Oskar. They have a private music school searching for and teaching young talented singers and musicians.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Slovenian pop music groups Slovenian songwriters Male–female musical duos Eurovision Song Contest entrants