Tifa | |
|---|---|
 Tifa in 1989 | |
| Born | Mladen Vojičić (1960-10-17)17 October 1960 (age 65) |
| Other names | Tifa |
| Education | University of Sarajevo (attended) |
| Spouse | Ljiljana Matić |
| Children | 1 |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | Heavy metal,hard rock,folk rock |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals; guitar (bass guitar) |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Website | www.tifa.ba(archived) |
Musical artist | |
Mladen Vojičić (Serbian Cyrillic:Младен Војичић; born 17 October 1960), better known by his nicknameTifa (Serbian Cyrillic:Тифа), is a Bosnianrock vocalist.[1] He gained acclaim throughoutformer Yugoslavia for his brief stint as the lead singer ofBijelo Dugme in the mid-1980s.[1]
Apart from Bijelo dugme, Tifa sang in numerous bands with varying degrees of prominence (most notable beingTeška Industrija,Vatreni Poljubac andDivlje Jagode). Undisputedly a singer with great vocal capabilities and a distinct vocal range, his impulsive personality and irrational character have often garnered controversy region-wide.
Nowadays, Tifa maintains a relatively successful solo career. He lives in his hometown ofSarajevo.[2]
Vojičić was born inSarajevo, to aBosnian Serb father Branko and aBosnian Croat mother Jelena, at a time when Sarajevo was part ofPR Bosnia and Herzegovina,Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He was nicknamedTifa before reaching the age of 4 because he loved trains and would often shout "Ide lokomotifa" (properly pronounced "Ide lokomotiva" meaning "Here comes thelocomotive") because he had problems pronouncing thephoneme "v".
He displayed an early propensity for singing. By the age of 5, he knew the entire repertoire ofIndexi. In primary school Tifa was an excellent student. Around that time he was a fan of UK bandSweet. He completedgymnasium, but did not excel at university. To please his intellectual father, he tried to work towards a "real job" by attending a number ofUniversity of Sarajevofaculties (mechanical engineering, architecture, civil engineering,geodesy), but ultimately abandoned each of them before devoting to music full-time.
Tifa started out as a bass guitar player in the first group he was involved with (Prvi čin). After barely a month he moved on toKako kad and only started singing when the lead singer didn't show up forrehearsal one day. After some time the band dissolved as everybody except Tifa lost their interest in music. Tifa's last band before conscriptmilitary service in October 1980 was calledParadox.
While in the army he stayed in touch with Zlatan Čehić, Paradox's bass player. Together, they also started working on tracks by mailing packages back and forth containingaudio cassettes with Zlatan composing and Tifa writing the lyrics. Upon his return from the army, Tifa learned that Paradox had been dissolved and that Zlatan joined another band namedTop, so he took back all of his lyrics and sought a new band to play with, only to eventually end up in Top also. They lasted until January 1983.
In the meantime, word spread around Sarajevo about Tifa's excellent vocal skills, so people started coming to him with offers of joining their groups. This led to engagements in a few bands, none of which existed long enough to achieve any prominence. Briefly, he was even a fringe member of the freshly re-activatedTeška industrija that made use of his lyrics in 1984 to record a few tracks on their comeback albumPonovo s vama ("With you again").
Just as he was trying to get in touch withMilić Vukašinović for a possible stint with his band, Tifa got a dream offer very few struggling musicians would dare refuse. In early 1984,Goran Bregović invited him to join Bijelo Dugme, the biggest band inSFR Yugoslavia at the time, as replacement to recently departedŽeljko Bebek.
Being only 24 years old, Tifa was ill-prepared for the instant fame he was about to step into. To make matters even more difficult, his alcoholism and drug problem continued to deteriorate his character and motivation. During most of the recording sessions, Tifa was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but despite numerous personality issues, Bregović was very much satisfied with the quality of his young singer's voice. After finishing theBijelo Dugme album, the band embarked on what would prove to be an extremely troublesome tour. The burden of replacingŽeljko Bebek as the lead vocal who spent previous 14 years with the band's various incarnations was just too heavy for Tifa to cope with. Bregović & co., all of whom were considerably older and more mature than their new vocalist, demanded discipline and professional approach, but got neither. To ease the pressure of playing in front of tens of thousands screaming fans every other night Tifa disappeared even further in his chemical addictions, making himself pretty much impossible to deal with. By October 1985, Bregović had finally had enough and kicked him out of the band. Tifa's last performance with Bijelo dugme took place in Moscow on 2 August 1985.
That same year, Tifa managed to escape criminal prosecution despite being at the wrong end of a drug bust that saw a handful ofdealers get arrested. Many have since wondered about the circumstances of the takedown, especially in light of the fact that Bijelo dugme drummerIpe Ivandić ended up serving 2 years in jail for similar drug possession offence some four years earlier. The widely circulated unofficial story claims Tifa took a snitch deal from the police whereby providing the information they wanted about his suppliers in return for having the charges wiped off.
Back on the music front, his first post-Dugme move was a duet withŽeljko Bebek for Bebek's new projectArmija B – they sang on a track called "Široko nam toplo polje glamočko". Two former Bijelo dugme frontmen even went ontour together, however proving once again he doesn't function well on the road, Tifa quit right in the middle of it, reasoning that it wasn't very successful anyway.
In the autumn 1986, he finally joinedMilić Vukašinović'sVatreni poljubac recording100% Rock'n'roll album with them.
After failing to settle down there too, Tifa ended up inDivlje Jagode, fulfillingSead Lipovača's wish of replacingAlen Islamović with someone from "Bregović's clan" as revenge for Alen's transfer to Bijelo dugme. Tifa participated in the recordings of their album titledKonji and even contributed a track of his own – "Zauvijek tvoj".
After making one album with Divlje Jagode, he left the group in 1988 and recorded new material underTifa & Vlado moniker withkeyboards player Vlado Podany (who earlier also played in Divlje Jagode and Armija B). However, no record company showed sufficient interest in releasing the album.
In 1989, he successfully released his first solo albumNo1 which he recorded withTifa Band, a freshly assembled group consisting mostly of musicians from bands he previously played with: Aleksandar Šimpraga (ex Top), Vlado Podany (ex Divlje Jagode), Mustafa Čizmić (ex Bolero), and Veso Grumić (ex Top) with the help of Djordje Ilijin (ex Tako) who playedkeyboards during studio sessions. Tifa wrote most of the songs for the band.
In early 1990, Tifa performed concerts with new lineup of Tifa Band with Zlatan Čehić (his old collaborator from Paradox days) as one of the members. Tifa then put together a second solo albumSamo ljubav postoji together with Zlatan. The executive producer of the album wasŽelimir Altarac Čičak.[citation needed]
He remained in his hometown during most of thesiege of Sarajevo and even managed to record an albumŠareni dan during that time. After getting viciously beaten up by some local heavies, an incident which he vehemently refuses to disclose any details about to this day, Tifa left Sarajevo in 1995 for Germany. Once there, he first caught up with Divlje Jagode again and then formed his own band. Shortly thereafter he returned to Sarajevo and carried on with his solo career.
In 1997, Tifa recorded the albumGrbavica and his title songGrbavica became an anthem of local football clubFK Željezničar Sarajevo support groupThe Maniacs, who sing lyrics of this song in every team's home match.[3][4][5]
In June 2005, Tifa took part inBijelo Dugme reunion for 3 large farewell concerts, but even then the reports of trouble were not far behind. Apparently he andBebek got into an argument backstage at the Sarajevo concert (the first in the series). Then, the day before the Belgrade concert (the final one in the series), irritated Tifa blastedBregović and manager Raka Marić inKurir daily tabloid: "I hear some are already talking about continuing on with the Dugme thing. No problem, but not with me. After this concert, I don't wanna see them again in this or in the next life. Maybe only in the third one. They took a year and a half out of my life, my kid has forgotten what I look like."
He would reunite with the previous vocalists of Bijelo Dugme, Željko Bebek andAlen Islamović to form a group called "Kad Bi Bio Bijelo Dugme" in 2006 and go on a North American tour. They returned once again in 2007 and began their worldwide tour which lasted until the end of 2010.[citation needed]
In 2013, Tifa released his seventh solo album by the nameSpreman sam na sve.[6]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Top lista nadrealista | Waiter | He played the role of a waiter in one segment of theTop lista nadrealista second television series in 1989 |
| 2007–2011 | Lud, zbunjen, normalan | Himself | He played himself in twoepisodes of the series. First in season 1 in episode 5 (2007) and the second time in season 4 in episode 115 (2011) |
Source:[3]
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Sunčane Skale winner with  Makadam2000 | Succeeded by |
