Jelena Rozga | en

Jelena Rozga (August 23, 1977) is a Croatian pop singer and one of the most famous singers in Croatia and the Balkans.

Jelena Rozga was born in Split, Croatia. In childhood Jelena danced ballet. After primary school, she went to high school for ballet dancers and joined ballet crew in Croatian National Theatre. She performed in Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutckracker, etc. Jelena left her ballet career when an opportunity showed up to become the lead singer in popular music group from Split - Magazin.

Jelena started her music career in 1996, when she performed song Aha on Dora, Croatian song contest for Eurovision Song Contest, and won second place. In the same year she became singer of Magazin. With not even 18 she joined group that will bring her great fame in the future and make her one of he most popular singers in the region. In 2006 Jelena left Magazin, but continued to work with Tonči Huljić, the founder of Magazin.

Soon she recorded and published her first solistic album Oprosti Mala with many hit songs like Gospe moja, Vršnjaci moji, Roba s greškom and others. In 2007 Jelena performed on Split Festival with Gospe moja and won Grand Prix. Her career moved rapidly upwards, especially in 2008 when she got Grand Prix in Split Festival for most played song from last years festival's edition for Gospe Moja. She than released single Daj šta daš which topped charts both in Croatia and other neighbour countries. Daj šta daš won Grand Prix in 2009 for most played song from last years festival edition. In 2009 Jelena performed on Hrvatski Radijski Festival with Svega ima, al' bi još in category Pop-folk music. In 2009 she also preformed on Split Festival again with Rodit ću ti 'ćer i sina, and year after, 2010, for the third time in a row, she won Grand Prix for most played song (Rodit ću ti 'ćer i sina). In 2010, after the premiere on Split festival, her song Bižuterija became huge hit both in Croatia and whole Balkan. Till this day it has over 27 000 000 views on YouTube. Afer many hit singles, on October 27, 2011 with concert in Zadar, Jelena started her first big tour, Bižuterija, during which she visited all big cities in Croatia. She was the first female artist that sold out Spaladium Arena (with capacity around 12.000) in her hometown, Split. Few months later, with sold-out concert in Cibona, Zagreb, she only sealed her status and success. In early 2011 Jelena released her second solistic album Bižuterija which sold out in over 15.000 copies in just a month. For that success she received Zlatna Ploča certificate form Croatian Phonographic Association.

That same year Jelena was nominated for Porin award (Croatia's version of the Grammy's) in category Hit of the year with Bižuterija. She won. Later that spring she recorded a song Dalmatinka with rap formation Connect and it became huge summer hit. In summer of 2011 she performed on Split Festival again with Razmažena and won another Grand Prix for getting most votes by selection of audience. By the end of 2011 she released her double-CD Best of compilation which consists of CD 1, her greatest hits in solistic career and CD2, her greatest hits in the years with Magazin (1996.-2006.). In 2012 on Split Festival she performed with song Solo Igračica which got her award Srebrni galeb, second place by selection of audience. In the same time she released her summer single Dobitna Kombinacija. After couple of months Jelena filmed music videos for both songs but it was specific because they were not two separated videos but one, made like a short movie. She was the first singer both in Croatia and neighbour countries to do such a thing. In 2013 she released single Nirvana, which brought a lot of attention both from her coleagues and the press, and in short time became a huge hit. That same summer she released song Obožavam, and power ballad Cirkus. In March 2014 she released Okus Mentola which became hit single, and same year in the summer song Život je Čudo was released. She also recorded soundtrack Odo Ja for popular TV show Kud puklo da puklo. In December 2014 she recorded and released Tsunami, single which in short time became one of her biggest hits. In first 24 hours of release it got more than 400 000 views on YouTube. On this day it has over 37 000 000 views. Its success proceeded to next singles like Kraljica and Otrov, and in early 2016, after long, time she released ballade Udajem se as a single.

After almost 6 years from previous album, in December 2016, Jelena released her third studio album Moderna Žena. It is consisted of two parts: Disc 1 has 6 new song plus 5 previous singles, and Disc 2 contains her older singles from 2011 to 2014 period. In its first week of release Moderna Žena reached No.1 place on selling charts and after 10 weeks, on this day, it still holds position #1. It is nominated for Porin award for best album in category Best album of pop music. Porin Awards will take place on March 17, 2017 in Spaladium Arena.
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