Nikolija

Nikolija

From Kako posle mene, the music video
Born Nikolija Jovanović
October 19, 1989
Zagreb, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia
Residence Belgrade, Serbia
Other names Nikki, Nicole
Occupation
  • Recording artist
  • dancer
  • photo model
  • businesswoman
Years active 2010–present
Partner(s)

Relja Popović (since 2014)

Children 1

Musical career

Genres
Instruments vocals
Labels
Associated acts Elitni Odredi
Website www.nikolija.com

Nikolija Jovanović (Serbian Cyrillic: Николија Јовановић, born on 19 October 1989), professionally known just as Nikolija, is a Serbian R&B/Hip hop recording artist, dancer and photo model. Known for her drastic changes in stage appearance and seductive music style, she is currently one of the most popular singers in Serbia and the region.

Her desire to become a singer emerged mainly because of her mother Vesna Zmijanac, who is a well known folk singer in the Balkan region. She started her music career in 2011 in Greece as a club dancer and master of ceremonies. Nikolija also recorded her first song there, but failed to achieve success. After that, she moved to Serbia to restart her career in 2013 with R&B and rap songs which had attention-grabbing and controversial lyrics. Actually, she brought that kind of music to west Balkans.[2] After successful singles like Kako posle mene, Alkohola litar and Opasna igra Nikolija gained enormous popularity in the region. Additionally, her music video for Opasna igra was the second most watched video in Serbia for 2015.[3] On October 20, 2016 she published her debut album №1.

Jovanovic has a university degree and speaks three foreign languages (Greek, English, and French). Nikolija has been in a relationship with singer Relja Popović, former member of Elitni Odredi band, since 2014 and got pregnant with him.[4] Unfortunately, she lost their baby in the third month of pregnancy.[5] In the first half of 2016, Nikolija got pregnant again.[6][7] On 26th September 2016 she gave a birth to a girl named Rea (meaning to flow in Greek). Both of her pregnancies were the hot topics in media for months that followed.[8]

Nikolija took part in the reality television shows, Survivor Srbija VIP: Philippines in 2010 and Ples sa Zvezdama (Season 1) in 2014.[9]

Life and career

Early life

Although her parents are from Serbia, she was born in Zagreb, former Socialist Republic Croatia. Her mother is the famous folk singer Vesna Zmijanac, and her father is Vlada Jovanovic, former marketing chief at PGP RTS. Being only 6 years old, she starred in her mother's music video for the song Kad bih znala kako si. In primary school she evinced an inclination for singing, winning the municipal and town singing competitions. She always wanted to be a performer, but her father wanted her to finish college.[10] She moved to Athens Greece, and got a degree in International Business at the American Deree College. Her parents are divorced and she has a half-sister Teodora Jovanović and a half-brother Luka Jovanović on the father's side.[11]

2010 – 2015: Career beginnings and early success

She started her career as a dancer and singer in Greek nightclubs during her studies. In 2011, she released her first song Crazy 2 night with DJ Kas as Nicole, but the song did not achieve success on the Greek market.

I recorded the song in English, but the publisher has given up. Maybe I would be successful, if i had the voice of Marija Šerifovic, her voice and my look.
— Nikolija Jovanović, Svet[12]

After the completion of her studies in 2013, she moved to Serbia and continued her career there. Milan Stanković brought her to Atelje Trag to record new songs. Her idea was to bring something new to Serbian music. Nikolija recorded her second song Ćao zdravo with Teča Gambino. At first, the public didn't accept well Nikolija's music style, provocative lyrics and music video. The song still had a large number of reviews. Same year she released the second self-titled single, which was better accepted. She had a duet called Milion dolara (Million dollars) with Ana Nikolić, for her fourth album. Music video for this song is known as one of the most expensive in Serbian show business and it won OGAE music video award.[13][14] These three songs made her to become a favored singer, but the next songs will gain her even more popularity.

In 2014, she released Alkohola litar (Liter of alcohol) with Elitni odredi and DJ Mladja,[15] which followed the romance between Nikolija and Relja Popovic in the media. Later in October she launched a turbo-folk style song Kako posle mene (How after me).[16] She wore a dress made by George Styler on the runway during the Belgrade fashion week.[17] In the late 2014 she released a duet song with the Montenegrian singer Dado Polumenta, Premija (premium).[18]

2015 - present: Opasna igra and upcoming debut album

In May 2015 she started shooting her new music video for the song Opasna igra (A dangerous game) in Greece.[19] Jovanovic released the single on 4th May for IDJ Tunes.[20] The song had a great success, becoming the summer hit and one of the biggest hits in Nikolija's career. During the same month she was a guest at a charity concert in Belgrade where she sang Opasna igra live for the first time.[21] Later that year, she published her first ballad Ljubavni maneken (Love mannequin) on October 20 through Toxic entertainment. The single came with a music video which has an art-fashion moment, as she says.[22] In November she was the trademark face for the Balmain x H&M collaboration in Serbia.[23]

Although being pregnant for the second time, Jovanovic was still working on her debut track and recorded a new trap single Niko kao mi (No one like us), which she released on 18th of July.[24] Two weeks after delivery, on 14th October she finally showed three new music videos for the songs Pucaj zbog nas (Shoot for us), 101 propušteni poziv (101 missed call) and Plavo more (Blue sea) that are part of the album, named №1.[25] Her album tour started in December and she was performing across the Balkans and the rest of Europe.[26]

Artistry

Although categorized as an R&B performer, Nikolija is constantly balancing between the western sound and Balkan folk music, which is favored there. In song like Kako posle mene, Nikolija mixed her pop vocals with folk sound and rap shares. That kind of music made biggest commercial success. Nevertheless, she is still recording pure modern hip-hop (Ćao zdravo) and trap (Niko kao mi) kind of songs. Ljubavni maneken was an exception, because it's a modern ballad. Her biggest musical influence is Rihanna, but also Jelena Karleuša who, as she said, showed her that pop music can be successful in Serbia.

She was mentioned several times in songs by Serbian rappers (Gru, Fox, Rasta, etc.) saying that she can't sing and that is necessary for her to use Auto-Tune while recording. They also criticized her look and music style.[27]

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

References

  1. ↑ "Upoznajte dečka Nikolije Jovanović" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2014-09-29.
  2. ↑ http://www.pulsonline.rs/licna-karta/160/nikolija-jovanovic
  3. ↑ "Najgledaniji YouTube snimci u Srbiji 2015" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  4. ↑ http://tracara.com/nikolija-i-relja-iz-elitnih-odreda-u-vezi-vec-mesecima/
  5. ↑ "Nikolija Jovanović izgubila bebu" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2015-02-23.
  6. ↑ "Pevačica uskoro majka, Nikolija čeka ćerku" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2016-05-14.
  7. ↑ "Nikolija Jovanović i Relja Popović, ćerka stiže na jesen" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2016-06-03.
  8. ↑ "Nikolija Jovanović izgubila bebu" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2015-02-23.
  9. ↑ "Nikolija Jovanović" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2014-09-25.
  10. ↑ "Nikolija Jovanović: moj otac nije bio oduševljen zanimanjem koje sam izabrala" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  11. ↑ "Lepotica, evo zašto je Nikolija Jovanović tek sada predstavila mlađu sestru" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2015-06-26.
  12. ↑ "Nikolija Jovanović: U Grčkoj bih uspela da imam glas Marije Šerifović" (in Serbian). Svet.rs. Retrieved 2013-09-29.
  13. ↑ "Preterale su: Nisu dostupne za mlađe od 18 godina!" (in Serbian). opera-17.com. Retrieved 2013-09-25.
  14. ↑ "Ana Nikolić i Nikolija na OGAE takmičenju" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2013-10-22.
  15. ↑ "Alkohola litar" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2014-09-25.
  16. ↑ "Nikolija potpuno drugačija u novoj pesmi Kako posle mene" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2014-10-03.
  17. ↑ "Nikolija na modnoj pisti" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2014-10-26.
  18. ↑ "Tajni duet Nikolije i Dada" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2014-12-05.
  19. ↑ "Nikolija šalje seksi pozdrave iz Grčke" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2015-05-13.
  20. ↑ "Seksi Nikolija zaigrala opasnu igru" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2015-06-05.
  21. ↑ "Nikolija izašla u humanitarne svrhe" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2015-06-10.
  22. ↑ "Nikolija - Ljubavni maneken - Novi hit!" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2015-10-20.
  23. ↑ "Stazama sjaja, zlata i ekstravagancije - Balmain x H&M stigla u Srbiju" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2015-11-04.
  24. ↑ "Nikolija Jovanovic objavila spot za pesmu Niko kao mi" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2016-07-18.
  25. ↑ "Veliki povratak na muzičku scenu - Nikolija objavljuje novi album, evo i kad" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  26. ↑ "Nikolija kreće sa koncertnom turnejom i promocijom albuma" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2016-11-10.
  27. ↑ "Nikolija Jovanović odgovorila Gruu na prozivke" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2015-09-08.
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