Tinkara Kovač

Tinkara Kovač, a Slovenian singer, pop-rock musician, flutist, and educator, was born on 3rd September 1978.

She began her musical journey at a young age, winning a competition at the age of nine. Noticing her talent, producer Bojan Adamič offered her an extended engagement, but her parents declined due to her young age. Later, she was encouraged by composer Danilo Kocjančič, who, along with lyricist Drago Mislej-Mef and Marino Legovič, wrote the song that earned her the award for most promising performer at Melodije Morja in Sonca (Melodies of the Sea and Sun).

In 1997, she signed her first record contract and released her debut album, which earned her a gold award and two Zlati Petelin awards. With the song “Vetr z juga” she took part in EMA, the national final for the Eurovision Song Contest. She then collaborated with the world/jazz/rock project Terra Mystica, earning two more Zlati Petelin awards. Her second album was released in 1999, which received gold and later platinum status. In the same year, she participated in EMA again, where she became 2nd with “Zakaj”.

As Tinkara became more involved in creating her own music and lyrics, she signed with Dallas Records (EMI/Virgin Slovenia). Her third album “Na Robu Kroga”, which featured five hit singles and corresponding videos, was released under the label. She participated in EMA again, her song “Sonce v očeh” reached a 5th place. During this time, she also performed 30–50 concerts per year, collaborated with Carlos Nunez, and became the first Slovenian artist to have a special one-hour TV show dedicated to her on German television.

Her fourth album, “O-range”, was introduced at a grand concert. The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) selected one of the songs from the album “O-range” as one of the top ten in the pop-rock category among 11,000 entries.

Tinkara also began making inroads in the Italian, Greek, Macedonian, and Croatian markets following the licensed release of the “O-range” album by EMI International.

She competed in the international music festival Megahit in Turkey in 2003 with the song “Reason why,” finishing in 5th place out of 14 countries.

In 2004, for her fourth concert at Cankarjev Dom, she invited Ian Anderson, the lead singer of Jethro Tull, whose music had greatly influenced her decision to learn the flute. She also participated as a guest in his orchestral solo performances and Jethro Tull group concerts in Croatia, Italy, Austria, and Germany.

In the same year, she released “Enigma”, a special four-language project with a limited edition, exclusively for Slovenia and Italy. During her tour in Italy, she participated in several important festivals and received the Gian Carlo Deganutti award for the Enigma album in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

In 2005, she performed a concert with Italian rock star Elisa, attracting over 8,000 listeners, marking Slovenia’s entry into the Schengen area. Later that year, she performed in front of a 185,000-strong crowd at St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican at the first meeting of Pope Benedict XVI with young people, being the only foreign guest and flutist soloist with the Vatican Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mons. Frisina.

In 2009, she released a compilation album of her greatest hits, and in 2012, an album called “Rastemo” featuring re-interpretations of hits from Slovenia and former Yugoslavia. In 2013, she won the award for best performer at the Melodije Morja in Sonca festival and released an album called “Zazibanke” with a selection of Istrian, Furlan, and other folk lullabies.

In 2014, she represented Slovenia at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song ‘Spet/Round And Round’ after winning the Slovenian EMA selection. She managed to qualify for the finals, where she ended up in the penultimate place.

In the summer of 2014, she performed at Melodije Morja in Sonca, opening the event with the song Mars and Venera.

After her Eurovision performance in 2014, she released a new song “2X2”, performed with Tomaž Klepač and the Children’s Choir of OŠ Koper. They also recorded a video clip. She then presented a song in Italian, “Cuori di ossigeno”, which climbed many music charts, including in Italy. 

She released a new album in 2016, called “Dober dan, življenje”. An Italian album, “Cuori di ossigeno”, was released a year later.

In 2019, she won again at Melodije Morja in Sonca with the song “Bodi z mano do konca” (Stay with me till the end), for which she also received the award for best lyrics.

In 2020, she released a song titled “Forever,” for which she penned the lyrics herself. She performed this song as a duet with Raiven. It was one of the participating songs in EMA 2020.

A new album, “Neskončnost”, was released in 2021. In 2022 she performed in Melodije Morja in Sonca again and ended up as the winner.