Alka Vuica

Alka Vuica (born 8 June 1961) is a Croatian singer, lyricist and TV presenter.

Vuica is most notable for her 1980s and early 1990s songwriting work for popular Yugoslav musical acts such as Željko Bebek, Oliver Mandić (hit song "Dođe mi da vrisnem tvoje ime"), Neki to vole vruće (hit "California"), Denis & Denis (hit "Ja sam lažljiva"), Boris Novković (most of the Jači od sudbine album), Josipa Lisac (hits "Gdje Dunav ljubi nebo" and "Danas sam luda"), Vlado Kalember (hit "Vino na usnama"), Viktorija, and Tajči (hits "Hajde da ludujemo" and "Moj mali je opasan").

In 1994, after a decade of writing songs for other performers, Vuica started a solo singing career with a mixture of pop and commercial Croatian-Balkan folk. Her biggest hits are 1994's "Laži me" and 1999's "Varalica".

Early life
Born in Pula to Zvonko and Zdenka Vuica, she started writing songs at a young age. At the age of 18, she moved to Zagreb where she started a relationship with the Srebrna Krila drummer Adi Karaselimović. She was introduced to composer Đorđe Novković, manager Vladimir Mihaljek and most importantly Goran Bregović.

Songwriting
In 1980s, she worked as a journalist and as songwriter, especially for Josipa Lisac, for whom she penned "Gdje Dunav ljubi nebo" (Where Danube Kisses the Sky), "Danas sam luda" (Today I'm Crazy), "Kraljica divljine" (Queen of the Wild), "Moja magija" (My Magic) and the album Hoću samo tebe (I Want Only You) which was released in 1983. Throughout the decade she continued to contribute lyrics. In 1990, she contributed to the Yugoslav entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, "Hajde da ludujemo" (Let's Get Crazy), performed by Tajči.

In 1988, she met an artist Vuk Veličković, with whom she had a son called Arian, a producer.

Solo performer
In the 1990s, she began performing and releasing her own records. In 1993, she released Laži me (1994), which included "O.K." (featuring Sandi Cenov) that was entered as a contender for the first ever Croatian Eurovision Song Contest entry. She released another three albums that decade with limited success, while criticising the restrictions imposed on Croatian performers to appear in other parts of the former Yugoslavia. In 1999, Vuica made an appearance at the New Year celebrations in Belgrade.

She released a further two albums in 2001 and 2004, before making a return to presenting with the talkshow Jedan na jedan on Nova TV, continuing with performing.

Vuica entered the 2009–10 Croatian presidential election. On 26 October 2009, the Green List announced they were supporting her bid for president. Because of non-sufficient votes, she fell out of race and also noted that 835 votes were stolen from her in Trogir. In 2015, she was called as witness in the Core Media affair involving the newspresenter Dijana Čuljak.

In May 2020, she released the single "Depresija" (Depression).

Her cousin Matija Vuica is a fashion designer.

Albums

 * Laži me (1994)
 * Za tebe čuvam sebe (1995)
 * Alkatraz (1997)
 * Balkan Girl (1999)
 * Profesionalka (2001)
 * Cirkus (2004)
 * Alkina kafana (2013)

Compilations

 * The Best of Alka (1996)
 * Najljepše ljubavne pjesme (2012)