Korni

Biography

Korni was a Yugoslavian band, established in Belgrade. The founder of the band was former keyboardist of Sarajevo band Indexi Kornelije Kovač, who moved to Belgrade that year. He was joined by former members of the Belgrade band Ellipse: bassist Bojan Hreljac and drummer Vladimir Furduj-Furda, guitarist  Velibor-Borko Kacl and singer Miroslava-Seka Kojadinović. Already their second performance was controversial; singer Miroslava Kojadinovic didn’t like the choice of songs, so she didn’t want to perform. Kornelije Kovač sang the song for her, but it was also the end of the collaboration with Miroslava. Promising Belgrade soul singer Dušan Prelević took her place. With Prelević as singer and song “Cigu, cigu ligu”, they performed at Jugovizija, – the election of a Yugoslav representative to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest. But as the singer performed drunk, it was his last appearance in the Korni group. The new singer of the band became Dalibor Brun. They took part in the Opatija Festival. Then they record their first big hits, “Magična ruka”, “Sonata” and “Dzum-ram”.
Dalibor Brun left the band in mid-1969, and he was replaced by Dado Topić. With him, progressive rock songs were released and they hold their first Belgrade concert at the Youth Center on November 6, 1969. Appearing at the Zagreb Festival in 1970, with the song “Jedna žena”, the Korni Group wins the award of the festival’s jury.That same year, they recorded music for a film, and they scored their probably biggest hit, “Trla baba lan”, which also achieved international success with the performance of French singer Dalida.
At the end of the summer of 1971, Dado Topić left the band. The new singer of the band, the then anonymous Zdravko Čolić, came from the Sarajevo band Ambasadori. He stayed in the group for only 6 months, and then continued his solo career. With him, Korni recorded three lesser hits.
After Čolić, the new singer of the group became Osijek singer Zlatko Pejaković. With him, Korni Grupa recorded their first album, Korni Grupa, in 1972, with very long songs in the then popular progressive rock style.That same year, the band performed in Montreux at the then highly regarded and highly regarded Montreux Jazz Festival.
In the spring of 1974, they won the Opatija Festival with the song “Moja generacija” and became Yugoslav representatives at the Eurovision Song Contest. The song title was changed into “Generacija 42”. In mid-1974, they released their second album, recorded in Italy under the name The Cornelians. The album was aimed at a foreign market in the then fashionable sympho rock style sung in English.
Disappointed with the poor sales of the album as well as a very poor Eurovision performance, band leader Kornelije Kovač decides it’s time for the band to fall apart.
Korni reunited in 1987 with Dado Topić as a singer at a concert at Zagreb’s Dom Sportova.