Tonči Huljić is a
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n musician, songwriter and music producer from
SplitSplit is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...
.
Huljić made his name in the late 1970s as the founder and key member of pop band Dalmatinski magazin (later renamed into
MagazinMagazin is a Croatian pop band from Split.Founded in the 1970s under the name Dalmatinski magazin , the band quickly began to make a mark on local pop music festivals with its songs influenced by Dalmatian folk music...
). The band gradually built a reputation as one of the most popular and most enduring Croatian pop bands, with repertoire and music arrangements influenced by
DalmatiaDalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
n folk music.
In the 1990s, following the break-up of
YugoslaviaYugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, Huljić was among the first Croatian musicians to introduce elements of folk music from other former Yugoslav republics into his repertoire. Although many rock critics did not like that, and accused Huljić of bringing turbo folk to Croatian music, Magazin became arguably the most popular music group in Croatia at that time. Its popularity continued across republics of the former Yugoslavia, just as it had done previously.
At that time, Huljić showed great managerial ability and founded the
Tonika record label that is among the most influential in Croatia. Huljić has also written popular pieces for Croatian piano player
Maksim MrvicaMaksim Mrvica is a Croatian pianist. He plays classical crossover music.- History :Mrvica was born in Šibenik, Croatia. He took up piano lessons from the age of nine from Marija Sekso and gave his first public performance in the same year. Just three years later he gave his first concert...
such as
Kolibre and
Nostradamus, and Maksim's greatest hit "Croatian Rhapsody".
BondBond is an Australian/British string quartet that specialises in classical crossover music...
, an Australian/British string quartet, used some of Huljić’s songs as the base of their hit songs "Explosive", "Victory", "Fuego".
The first solo album is called
Waterland.
External links