Siniša Vuco

Siniša Vuco (born April 29, 1971 in Split, former Socialist Republic of Croatia, former Yugoslavia), his stage name being simply "Vuco", is a Croatian singer and songwriter. Common, recurring themes in his songs include: addiction, alcoholism, love, the past, and suffering.

Musical beginnings

Siniša Vuco, Croatian presidential candidate, began his career as a pop musician, but his big break came in 1992 when he appeared in the Split Music Festival. He presented himself as one of the first Croatian Pop musicians to reintroduce the accordion (which was being regarded as "rural and primitive" by many advocates of Urbanism), Roma music and oriental sounds in his work, in a time when it was considered "politically incorrect" for Croatians to do so because it was somehow redolent of Turbo-folk music. Vuco, together with Zlatko Pejaković, much to the dismay of pop/folk critics and social commentators, reintroduced elements of turbo-folk to Croatian pop music.

Although officially frowned upon, such trends apparently struck the chord among a large section of the Croatian public and Vuco acquired a loyal following. In the late 1990s, his songs were subjected to a semi-official ban in the Croatian state media. It had less to do with the quality or questionable origin of Vuco's music, and more with Vuco's temperament and his tendency not to mince words when talking about some of his peers and their personal habits. Some of those names apparently included some of the most powerful people in the Croatian entertainment industry.

Rock background and various projects

Apart from having a turbo-folk career, Siniša Vuco is also a vocalist and guitarist for the hard rock band "Živo blato", for which he writes most of the songs. While playing for "Živo blato", he takes the stage name "Vasilije Mitu". He is also a member of the heavy metal band "Klanje ljudi", for which he performs using the stage name "Admiral Koljač".

Vuco has also written songs for others, some of which have become semi-hits, for example the song "Stari Se" was written by him for Thompson.

He is infamous for his often eccentric performances; for example: "Živo blato"'s Split concert of 2004 stands out as lambs were being roasted on stage as the band played, and spectators could simply walk up to the stage and grab a piece of lamb to eat. He declared that his favorite pets are chickens and that he hates cats, dogs and flies.

Siniša Vuco is also known for his quite eccentric television appearances, such as those on the "Nightmare Stage" talk show, which used to air on OTV.

Similar appearances occurred during the 2003 parliamentary elections when he appeared on Croatian Radiotelevision as an independent candidate. Although many in Croatian public considered his TV presentation to be the most original and the most entertaining part of the entire campaign, most people saw his candidacy more as a publicity stunt than a genuine effort to start a political career.

Personal life

Siniša Vuco was married twice and divorced once. Two songs, one inspired by his former, and one inspired by his present wife, became hits.

Most recently

In 2005 Vuco cut his long hair short, which he had been growing for many years, in order to be taken more seriously when discussing business in regard to his newly-purchased soccer team in Croatia. He did this on advice from a colleague. Media in Croatia reported on his new appearance as going so far as to make Vuco look "sympathetic". Despite having cut his hair, he left his very short beard the way it was. Volim piti is one of his greatest hits, also translated in English, Swedish and Ukrainian. One of his newer singles is Volim narodno in which he copied parts from popular song "We will rock you". The song is a duet with popular Serbian Folk singer Mitar Miric. He has also collaborated with other big names in the industry, which include Dzej Ramadanovski and Vesna Zmijanac.

Recently, one joke about Vuco emerged in Croatia:

A long time ago Bruce Lee, Rambo & Vuco made an agreement to kill a dragon that has been terrorising a nearby village. The three of them came to the cave and Bruce said he'd go in first. And so he did. After a while, some bone-braking sound came out of the cave and in a few minutes Bruce stepped outside the cave and said: "Fuck, what a dragon!!" and dropped dead. After him, Rambo went inside. After few rounds of bullets that were heard fired in the cave, Rambo rushed out, came to Vuco and said: "Fuck, what a dragon!!" and dropped dead. And finally, Vuco bravely went inside. Some nearby witnesses heard some noises that were similar to Vuco's " [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tlp3Tkbhq28 "Volim piti"] " (I love to drink) song. After a while, the dragon came out and said: "Fuck, what a redneck!!" and dropped dead.

In addition to upper joke, the lyrics of "Volim piti" go something like this:
I love to drink,
I love to drink,
I love to drink,
And to kiss women.

That's how I was born,
That's how I'll get old.

Discography

tudio albums

* 1993: "A gdje si ti?"
* 1995: "Vuco II"
* 1997: "Vuco III"
* 1997: "Vuco IV"
* 1998: "Volim piti i ljubiti"
* 2001: "Vuco 2001"
* 2002: "Vrati se, vrati"
* 2004: "Jesam!"
* 2004: "Volim narodno"
* 2007: "Ne mogu ti to oprostiti"

Compilation albums

* 2000: ""
* 2003: ""
* 2007: ""