Tinkara Kovač (born 3 September 1978) is a

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

n singer and musician. She represented her country in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2014 The Eurovision Song Contest 2014 was the 59th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, following the country's victory at the with the song "Only Teardrops" by Emmelie de Forest. Organised by the European ...

in Copenhagen, finishing in 25th place.

Career

Career in general

Her professional career as a singer started in 1997, when she won "Most promising singer award" at the Portorož festival. Her appearance was encouraged by known local composer Danilo Kocjančič, which together with lyrics writer Drago Mislej – Mef and Marino Legovič wrote the winning song and later the whole material for her first album. In 2004, at the time of her fourth concert in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

Cankar Centre The Cankar Centre or Cankar Hall ( sl, Cankarjev dom) is the largest Slovenian convention, congress and culture center. The building was designed by the architect Edvard Ravnikar and was built at the southern edge of Republic Square in Ljubljana b ...

, she invited

Ian Anderson Ian Scott Anderson (born 10 August 1947) is a British musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work as the lead vocalist, flautist, acoustic guitarist and leader of the British rock band Jethro Tull. He is a multi-instrumentalist w ...

(singer of the group Jethro Tull), which greatly contributed to her decision to start playing

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

. At Anderson's reverse invitation she participated as a guest during the band's tour in

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

, Italy,

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and Germany. Later she sang also with

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

and other musicians, like

Carlos Núñez Muñoz Carlos Núñez Muñoz (born 1971) is a Spanish musician and multi-instrumentalist who plays the gaita, the traditional Galician bagpipe, Galician flute, ocarina, Irish flute, whistle and low whistle. Life and career Nuñez was born in 1971 in V ...

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Massimo Bubola Massimo Bubola (15 March 1954) is an Italian singer-songwriter, record producer and arranger. During his career, he cooperated with lot of Italian musicians in writing lyrics and musics, and his most significant cooperation was with Fabrizio De ...

, Bungaro and Paul Millns. Her musical influences are U2,

KT Tunstall Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall (born 23 June 1975) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and musician. She first gained attention with a 2004 live solo performance of her song " Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on '' Later... with Jools Holland''. Th ...

Imogen Heap Imogen Jennifer Heap (born 9 December 1977) is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Her work has been considered pioneering in pop and electropop music. Heap classically trained in piano, cello and clarinet starting at ...

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and Jethro Tull.

Eurovision Song Contest

Kovač had made three previous attempts to represent Slovenia. In Slovenia's 1999 national final, she won the televote but finished second after the jury vote was given. She also finished fifth in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

and 10th in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

. She will attempt to represent her nation once again in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

Tinkara Kovač, ESC2014 Meet & Greet 06 (crop)

: ''Veter z juga'' (Danilo Kocjančič - Drago Mislej - Marino Legovič) – 10th (574 televotes) *

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

: ''Zakaj'' (Marino Legovič - Drago Mislej - Marino Legovič) – 2nd (62 points) *

: ''Sonce v očeh'' (Tinkara Kovač, Sergej Pobegajlo - Zvezdan Martič - Sergej Pobegajlo) – 4th (18 points) *

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

: ''Spet/Round and Round'' (Raay - Tinkara Kovač, Hannah Mancini, Tina Piš - Raay) – 1st (7.932 televotes) *

: ''Forever'' (Aleš Klinar - Anja Rupel - Miha Gorše) – 4th On 8 March 2014, Kovač was announced as the winner of Slovenian selection, EMA 2014 with her bilingual song " Spet/Round and Round" meaning she will represent Slovenia in the

in Copenhagen, Denmark. The song was written by Kovač, Raay, Tina Piš, and the Slovene representative in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2013 The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was the 58th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Euphoria" by Loreen. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EB ...

Hannah Mancini Hannah Leah Mancini (born 22 January 1980), also known as Stella Mercury or simply Hannah, is an American singer and songwriter who works and lives in Slovenia. She has been heavily involved in dance, nu disco and electronic scenes there and wor ...

. She managed to get into final evening and finished 25th out of 26.

Slovenian song festival 1998

She participated with the song "Moški in ženska" ("Man and Woman").

Singles

* 1993: "Odločitev" * 1995: "Moje flavte nežni zvok" * 1997: "Veter z juga" * 1997: "Ne odhaja poletje" * 1998: "Moški in ženska" * 1999: "Zakaj" * 2001: "Sonce v očeh" * 2003: "Reason Why" * 2005: "Spezzacuori" * 2009: "Če je to vse" * 2012: "Je to res" * 2013: "Mars in Venera" * 2014: "Spet" / "Round and Round" * 2014: "2X2" * 2014: "Cuori di ossigeno" * 2015: "Ocean" * 2015: "Canzone per te" / "Pesem zate" (with

Perpetuum Jazzile Perpetuum Jazzile is a Slovenian musical group best known for an a cappella version of Toto rock band's song Africa. The May 2009 video showing a live performance of this version has received close to 22 million views on YouTube. The group was ...

) * 2020: "Forever"

Discography

* ''Ne odhaja poletje'' (1997) * ''Košček neba'' (1999) * ''Na robu kroga'' (2001) * ''O-range'' (2003) * ''Enigma'' (2004) * ''aQa'' (2007) * ''The Best of Tinkara'' (2009) * ''Rastemo'' (2012) * ''Zazibanke'' (2013) * ''Round and round/Spet'' (2014)

Personal life

Kovač achieved formal music education as a professor with a degree in

playing at the Giuseppe Tartini conservatory in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

. She lives near the

Karst Plateau The Karst Plateau or the Karst region ( sl, Kras, it, Carso), also locally called Karst, is a karst plateau region extending across the border of southwestern Slovenia and northeastern Italy. It lies between the Vipava Valley, the low hills sur ...

together with her partner and two daughters. She is of partial Hungarian ancestry.Interview from a Hungarian portal (Mosaic Online)
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References

External links

Official web site

Tinkara Kovač on youtube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kovac, Tinkara Living people Musicians from Koper 1978 births 21st-century Slovenian women singers 20th-century Slovenian women singers Slovenian pop singers Slovenian flautists Slovenian people of Hungarian descent Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Slovenia Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2014 Articles containing video clips 20th-century flautists 21st-century flautists