Ana Rucner

She was born into a musically talented family. Her mother, Snježana, is a cellist and soloist at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, while her father, Dragan, is a violinist and soloist in the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra.

She received her primary and secondary music education at the Elly Bašić Music Institute in Zagreb, and during her high school years and studies (from 1993 to 2003), she was constantly engaged with the Maribor Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2006, she married singer Vlado Kalember, from whom she divorced eight years later.

She became particularly famous after the release of the “Ode to Joy” music video, which promotes Croatian tourism. The video was created based on her idea, and besides her, it featured the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ivan Goran Kovačić Academic Choir. The video won the tourism Oscar (“Das goldene Stadttor”) at the 11th International Tourism Film and Multimedia Festival in Berlin, competing against 180 countries. On April 9, 2013, the video was awarded a bronze medal at the New York Festivals, along with 11 other awards.

In 2016, Ana performed at the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm, Sweden, together with singers Dalal Midhat-Talakić and Fuad Backović, also known as “Deen,” and rapper Jasmin Fazlić Jala, with the song “Ljubav je,” representing Bosnia and Herzegovina. The song was performed in the first semi-final on May 10 but did not qualify for the final on May 14. This was the first time that representatives from Bosnia and Herzegovina did not qualify for the Eurovision Song Contest final.