Tajči Cameron ( , ; born Tatjana Matejaš, , on 1 July 1970) is a Croatian singer, television show host, published author and blogger, who now lives in the
United States.
Career
As a pop star in the former
Yugoslavia in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Tajči won the national selection of RTV
Zagreb,
SR Croatia and represented
Yugoslavia at the
Eurovision Song Contest 1990. The contest was held at Zagreb and she sang the song "
Hajde da ludujemo
Yugoslavia was the host nation of the Eurovision Song Contest 1990, held in Zagreb, Socialist Republic of Croatia, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia. It was represented by Tajči and the song "Hajde da ludujemo"
Before Eurovision
Jugovizija 1990
The Yug ...
" ("Let's go crazy"). Her Yugoslav music career was cut short by the
breakup of Yugoslavia
The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
and the subsequent
war.
She left Croatia in 1992 and a year later graduated from the
American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York.
She appeared in numerous off Broadway productions and landed a lead role in "Miracle of Christmas" a mega-production at
Sight and Sound Theatre, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. During her time in New York, she was signed by Camile Barbone and produced the "Age of Love" CD recorded at
Long View Farm
Long View Farm Studios was a music recording studio located in North Brookfield, Massachusetts which was founded in 1974 by Gilbert Scott Markle, a professor at Clark University, on his farm property.
It was the location of recordings from many ...
s Studio.
In 1994, she returned to Croatia and starred in a production of ''
Kiss Me Kate'' by
Croatian National Theatre, Rijeka. She moved to Los Angeles in 1997 seeking to expand her performing skills through television and film. She continued her musical theater career with roles in
Brigadoon produced by
Starlight Theatre in San Diego and ''
The Phantom of the Opera'' at the
San Gabriel Mission Playhouse. In 1997-98, she produced a series of benefit concerts at the
Sacred Heart Retreat House in Alhambra, California, where she met Matthew Cameron, whom she married in 1999. She ended up performing music in
Roman Catholic churches while auditioning for roles, some of which she rejected because they required nudity.
In late 2004, she and her family relocated to
Cincinnati, Ohio, a more central location for her heavy touring schedule with concerts. In 2011,
Yamaha Entertainment Group produced a remake of her mega-hit from the 1990s "Dvije zvjezdice". She released an indie pop album ''Awaken'' in 2013 on which she collaborated with Bryan Lennox, a
Grammy Award-winning producer. Tajči wrote a full-length musical, ''My Perfectly Beautiful Life'', which was produced by Cincinnati Playwright Initiative at the
Jarson-Kaplan Theatre in February 2010.
Tajci, her husband and their three children relocated to
Franklin, Tennessee in 2014, the same year she started producing and hosting TV show "Waking Up in America"
[ and in 2015 founded "Waking Up Revolution", a multi platform brand. She is also a certified Holistic Life Coach through Radiant Health Institute, certified as 65 hours of Approved Coach Specific Training Hours by the ]International Coach Federation
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to professional coaching. ICF has been called "the main accrediting and credentialing body for both training programs and coaches". ICF defines coaching as partne ...
.[
]
Personal life
Tajči married Matthew Cameron, whom she met in church, in 1999. The couple have three sons, all raised in the Roman Catholic faith.
She lost her husband Matthew to Stage 4 non smokers' lung cancer in 2017.[
Her sister is Croatian-American actress and singer Sanja Matejaš, known as Sanya Mateyas.]
Discography
*''Hajde Da Ludujemo
Yugoslavia was the host nation of the Eurovision Song Contest 1990, held in Zagreb, Socialist Republic of Croatia, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia. It was represented by Tajči and the song "Hajde da ludujemo"
Before Eurovision
Jugovizija 1990
The Yug ...
'' (1990)
*''Bube u glavi'' (1991)
*''Struggles & Graces'' (1997)
*''Now and Forever'' (2000)
*''Emmanuel – The Story of Christmas'' (2002)
*''Let It Be – Mary's Story'' (2003)
*''I Thirst'' (2004)
*''Zlatna kolekcija'' (2004)
*''A Chance to Dream'' (2006)
*''Need A Break'' (2008)
*''All american'' (1991)
*''The best of Tajči'' (1992)
*''The love collection'' (2011)
*''Taichi Eqinocij'' (1997)
*''God bless America'' (2010)
*''Dell'aurora tu sorgi piu bella'' (2011)
*VHS ''Bube u glavi'' (1991)
*''AWAKEN'' (2014)
References
External links
Cincinnati Enquirer: From pop stardom to an inner light
"Nisam požalila prekid karijere"
Official Site
WakingUpRevolution Site
iDoBelieve.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tajci
1970 births
Living people
Croatian pop singers
Croatian Roman Catholics
20th-century Croatian women singers
Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Yugoslavia
Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1990
Croatian emigrants to the United States
Musicians from Zagreb
21st-century Croatian women singers
Yugoslav women singers