Svetlana 'Ceca' Ražnjatović, née Veličković, also known as Ceca (Serbian Cyrillic: Светлана Цеца Ражнатовић, born on June 14, 1973, in Prokuplje, Yugoslavia, now Serbia) is a very popular and successful singer from the Balkans.
She is one of the highest paid artists in the Balkan music industry. She began her career as a folk and turbo folk singer but has evolved into a style that resembles Serbian modern folk-pop-dance music, mostly a mixture of Eastern European, Latin and Oriental styles. She is also popular among the expatriate Balkan population living in Western Europe.
Early career
Ceca began singing at the age of 9 in her hometown of Žitorađa. She gratuated from Veterinarian 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) received acclaim . Ceca 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).
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 three albums, Sta je to u tvojim venama/Kukavica (1993),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. Maskarada,her 1997 album was moderately success . The song Nevaljala from that album became the number one hit in Serbia for 17 consecutive weeks which was a record for any Serbian song in 1997. 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 10 million copies, mainly in Balkan countries. Ceca's popularity over the last 16 years has earned her the nickname "Queen of the Balkans."
Ceca's 1997 hit song Nevaljala was the only song in the history of Serbian pop charts to rank number one for 17 consecutive weeks. This song was the cover song of her 1997 album Maskarada. The album sold close to 400,000 copies in the first two weeks of its release. The song was also used in 2001 Romanian film "În fiecare zi Dumnezeu ne sărută pe gură".
Ceca's other song which came close to breaking the 17 week number one spot was her 2001 hit Bruka which was number One on the Yugoslavian pop charts for 15 consecutive weeks. This song was part of her album Decenija released in 2001. The popularity of the song surged due to the fact that it was released in late November before the festive season and preceded many artists winter releases. The song was a hit and regained the number one spot at all major national musical charts at home and abroad. Bruka maintained its number one streak for 15 consecutive weeks. In Croatia, the song was taken off the air after a 4-week run partly due to objections from several Croatian singers at that time who felt that a foreign song should not be competing for domestic charts. Nevertheless, Bruka continued to be a major hit among Croatian fans. In Bosnia, however, the song was well received. Bruka is considered by many Serbian music critics to be one of the biggest hits of 2001. The reason for its success, many Music critics state, is partly due to the fact that the song was an amalgamation of Eastern European folk traditions which plays itself out to dance beats.
Ceca prefers concerts to tours presumably to avoid fatigue . Some of the more important ones are:
- January 13, 2007 - Serbian Orthodox New Year's celebration in Belgrade, a day-long event organized by DSS-NS coalition, with performers such as Riblja čorba, Negative, Eyesburn, Rambo Amadeus, and Ceca as the marquee star, performing from 10:40pm until 12.05am in front of an estimated crowd of 350,000. Among many other public figures, present in the audience were the Serbian PM Vojislav Koštunica, Capital Investment Minister Velimir Ilić, poet Matija Bećković, Sanda Rašković-Ivić.
Controversies and criticism
In 1995 Ceca married Željko Ražnatović Arkan, leader of the paramilitary forces Arkan's Tigers and one of the most influential criminals in Belgrade in the 90's. For the people of Serbia, Arkan was a hero, for others he was just a villain. 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 and has stated that she has not had any sex over the last seven years.
Ceca's popularity in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia (Ceca is not aired on any major stations besides in the Bosnian 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. one of the notable supporters to the idea of offering the post to Ceca was Velibor Vasović. The former Ajax captain stated that one of the pros of appointing her as the new president is the fact that at the time She was One of the rare people who were investing money in Serbian football.
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, the notorious war criminal Željko Ražnatović (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.
On the night of 17th March 2004, Ceca and Kristijan Golubović (close associate of Arkan) gathered demonstrators in front of the government building in Belgrade to speak of the situation in Kosovo and the burning of more than 300 Serbian Orthodox churches in Kosovo.
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)
; "Svetlana Raznjatovic CECA")
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