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Ceca (singer)

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File:1usce.jpg
Ceca at her concert on Ušće in Belgrade

Svetlana Ceca Ražnatović, born Veličković (Serbian Cyrillic: Светлана Цеца Ражнатовић, born Величковић, June 14, 1973, Žitorađa, Yugoslavia, now Serbia) is one of the most popular singers in the Balkans. Since the mid 1990s she has been a major star in the Balkans. Her popularity is comparable only to that of the 1980s Yugoslav folk superstar Lepa Brena. She began her career as a folk singer but has evolved into a style that resembles the immensely popular Greek modern folk-pop-dance music. Due to the immigration of many Balkan nationals she is also popular in Western Europe.

Early career

Ceca began singing at the age of 9 in her hometown of Žitorađa. She gratuated from Veterenian high school.

She entered showbusiness in 1988, at the age of 14, performing at the Ilidža Music Festival in Sarajevo. Her song Cvetak zanovetak (Nagging flower) was regarded as an immediate sensation. Ceca became an instant celebrity and was mentored by Dobrivoje Doca Ivanković, a composer and producer of folk music, who launched many careers in the 1970s and 1980s (most notably, Šaban Šaulić).

Her first two albums (Cvetak zanovetak 1988, Ludo srce 1989) were made in Serbian folk music style with some songs having a more modern production (Lepotan, Volim te). To Miki to, her third album, was a major hit in the former Yugoslavia. With 350,000 copies sold, she became the best-selling artist of the Belgrade TV's record label PGP-RTB and third best-selling female folk artist in Yugoslavia. She continued in the same direction with her next album, Babaroga (1991) including a music video comprised of footage from her 18th birthday gala event (Hej vršnjaci).

Major star

Comeback

She continued to work with Futa and Marina Tucaković and later with Tucaković's young protégé Aleksandar Milić Mili whom she continues to work with today. Her next two albums, Ja još spavam u tvojoj majici (1994) and Fatalna ljubav (1995), which sported one of her biggest hits to date, Beograd (Belgrade), broadened her popularity. With a more modern production of music, music videos, and an evolving style, her popularity has grown, as demonstrated by her 1996 album Emotivna luda. Her recording schedule has since become erratic because of the birth of her two children, Anastasija and Veljko, and having to deal with family tragedy (see Controversies below). Maskarada (1997), Ceca 2000 (1999), Decenija (2001), Gore od ljubavi (2004), Idealno loša (2006). She has refused many contracts offered by various European musical companies citing lack of time. She has sold over 19 million copies, mainly in Balkan countries.

File:2004 album promotional photo.jpg
Promotional photo for "Gore od ljubavi" album

Ceca's popularity over the last 16 years has earned her the nickname "Queen of the Balkans."

Concerts

Ceca avoids touring but prefers major, spectacular concerts, presumably finding them more appropriate for her super-star status. Some of the more important are:

  • 1993 - Tašmajdan stadium; 12,000 attendants (notable as her first big triumph after years of negative press. She sang her biggest hit at the time, the song Kukavica, 7 times)
  • June 17, 2006 - Ušće, Belgrade; over 150,000 attendants on this concert and thousands watching from the neighboring buildings and fields

attendants

  • January 13, 2007 - Serbian Ortodox New Year´s celebration in Belgrade, a whole day and night concert, with other performers such as Riblja Corba, Negative, Rambo Amadeus, and Ceca as the biggest music star in Serbia, which performed from 22.40 ´till 00.05; est. 500.000 attendants.

In the audience, among others public figures, were seen Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, Velimir Ilic, Matija Beckovic, Sandra Raskovic-Ivic.

Controversies and criticism

In 1995 Ceca married Željko Ražnatović Arkan, leader of the paramilitary forces Arkanovi Tigrovi and one of the most influential criminals in Belgrade in 90's. For some people in Serbia, Arkan was a hero, for others he was just a (war) criminal. His marriage to Ceca was celebrated on TV, in papers, and in estrada-circles as a "Serbian fairytale". Arkan was assassinated on January 15, 2000 in Belgrade, Ceca was left together with their two children. Despite having been shot in the head, he was still alive but later died in her arms in the back of the car driving them to the ER. After 18 months of mourning, she made her first public appearance in a TV interview. " One part of me died that day...I will always love him, and only him, I'm sure of that...," she said. Ceca never allows anyone to talk badly about Arkan in her presence. To this day, she is officially single.

Ceca was arrested in March 2003, and detained for four months accused of helping the Zemun clan to assassinate Serbia's prime minister Zoran Đinđić and for illegal weapon possession. She was later cleared of all charges.

At the moment, she is prosecuted for illegal financial transactions in her football club FK Obilic.

Ceca's popularity in Bosnia and Herzegovina and especially Croatia (where popularity of this genre of music is a new phenomenon, yet Ceca is not aired on any major stations besides in the Republika Srpska entity), also caused certain controversies. She has been attacked by many Bosnian and Croatian public figures because of her involvement with Arkan and has even been called a war criminal herself. She has said in public that she loves and greets all of her fans, but that she will never perform in either Zagreb or Sarajevo.

Other activities

Acting

At the age of 17, Ceca was cast in the role of Koštana, a beautiful gipsy singer and dancer, in Stojan Stojčić's directorial effort of Nečista krv ( Impure blood ), a movie based on the works of Serbian playwright and novelist Borisav Stanković. Even though she had acted along Rade Šerbedžija, Ljuba Tadić and so on, she felt that her role was unimportant and therefore asked for her scenes to be removed because of "low quality." The troubled production took years to complete and received poor critical reception upon its release in 1996.

Football

She inherited the football club Obilić from her deceased husband becoming its president. She often appeared at matches in fur coats and imposed strict monetary punishments on players who performed poorly as Obilić, former champion of Yugoslavia, was sinking on the rankings table.

When Miljan Miljanić stepped down from his presidential post at the Football Association of Yugoslavia in September 2001, the press openly cheered Ceca's election for the post campaigning that they would have the most beautiful president. However, former Crvena Zvezda player, Dragan Stojković Piksi was elected to the post.

Politics

Ceca was appointed the honorary president of the Party of Serbian Unity (SSJ) formed by her late husband Arkan. She has not been politically engaged and claims to have only accepted the position in honor of her deceased husband. After clashing with the president of the party, Borislav Pelević, on many issues, Ceca withdrew herself from politics completely.

Charity

Ceca is the president of the "Third Child" humanitarian fund. Its purpose is to increase the birthrate in Serbia and to help families who already have three or more children. She has held several humanitarian concerts raising money for food, clothing, and sundries to benefit the Serbs in Kosovo, after the violent unrest in Kosovo in March, 2004.

Discography (studio albums)

Facts

  • On July 29, 2006, she was a guest on a music event in Ohrid Lake, Macedonia. She sang only three songs from her new album Idealno loša - "Lepi grome moj," "Pile," and "Manta manta" and was reportedly paid € 50,000.
  • She has dedicated the song "Pile" to her late husband ("and my heart is a baby chick, wet, yellow and small, that once fell asleep next to an eagle...").
  • She is 173 centimetres (5 ft 8 inches) in height.
  • She is considered to be one of the best performers of traditional Serbian folk songs.
  • Her nicknames include "Ceca Nacionale", "The Goddess" (Boginja) and "Ceki."
  • The United States, Canada and Australia have all refused to give her a visa because of her assumed connections to the Serbian crime underworld.
  • She finds Brad Pitt to be one of the most attractive men in the world.
  • In 2006 Serbian Big Brother, running on B92 TV network, contestants are forbidden to mention her name, and when one girl from a house wanted to hear her song, Big Brother refused to play Ceca's music.
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