Đorđe Novković

Đorđe Novković
Born	(1943-09-02)2 September 1943 Šabac, Serbia
Died	Zagreb, Croatia
Genres	Pop music
Occupation(s)	Songwriter
Years active	1967–2007

Đorđe Novković (Cyrillic: Ђорђе Новковић; 2 September 1943 – 6 May 2007) was a songwriter who was known for his work in SFR Yugoslavia and Croatia. He is also known as the father of popular singer Boris Novković.

Novković was believed to have been born in Šabac, Serbia, although some sources cite Sarajevo. to a Croatian mother and a Serb father, Vukašin, a violinist, so his musical talent was discovered very early, and he joined the musical school in Sarajevo at the age of 6. After graduating conducting from Musical Academy in Sarajevo, he founded a band Pro Arte during the fall of 1967.

In 1968, Đorđe's wife Ozana gave birth to their son Boris, and the family moved to Zagreb. Boris later became a rock singer-songwriter, but he split abruptly with his father at the age of 19. Đorđe's first hit came in 1969 with the song "Više se neće vratiti" performed by Mišo Kovač and sold in half a million copies, and a later version in 1985 had similar success. In 1973, Pro Arte merged with another Sarajevo pop group Indexi, but the experiment lasted only several months. Pro Arte existed in continuity until 1980, as well as off-and-on throughout the 1980s. In 1989 Novković moved to live in Rovinj, Croatia.

After Pro Arte, Đorđe Novković switched to writing songs, creating material for some of the hits of the former Yugoslavia. He collaborated with performers such as Mišo Kovač, Neda Ukraden, Zdravko Čolić, Tomislav Ivčić, Tereza Kesovija, Ivica Šerfezi, Gabi Novak, Srebrna krila and others.

After Tito's death he composed the music for the song "Druže Tito mi ti se kunemo", which was then performed by Zdravko Čolić which was then sold in 350,000 copies. Novković composed music for the infamous thank-you schlager "Danke Deutschland" produced in January 1992 by Croatian state television as a show of gratitude to Germany for their role in international recognition of their independence. In 1993 he wrote the song "Don't Ever Cry" for Put, the first Croatian representative in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Since 1997, he co-owned and managed the Croatia Records label, together with Miroslav Škoro. In 2000, he moved to Zagreb again. In 2003 Novković gained a lot of popularity as judge of Story Supernova Music Talents, a reality show for aspiring musicians similar to Popstars aired on Nova TV. The audience was amused by the sarcastic comments he directed at contestants and his co-judge, Škoro, earning him a controversial reputation.

Death

He died suddenly at the age of 64, from an apparent stroke, in Zagreb. In a Roman Catholic funeral ceremony he was buried in Zagreb's Mirogoj Cemetery.