Elvira Voća Zlatna Kolekcija

Elvira Voća (b.1942) was one of ubiquitous names in 1960s and 1970s Croatian music scene, one of those also-runners on numerous pop festivals so popular back than but for the life of me I can't remember any of her big hits and I doubt she ever had any. Not that anything was wrong with her - she had a pleasant voice and was attractively coiffured blonde - but at the end of the day she always sounded as whitewashed copy of already well established Gabi Novak and her repertoire was so darn unadventurous that she seems to have passed her life unwittingly attempting something that was far beyond her.

CD1 tries to recapitulate Voća's pop career and at the end of the day it all falls on listing countless festivals where she performed - there is nothing offensive here but nothing of much interest either. Voća croons gently again and again trough her "schlager" repertoire like some good natured neighbor lady who imagines herself like a singer - having famous and influential husband couldn't hurt - but when she covers everything from Engelbert Humperdinick to Abba or Stevie Wonder, I really think WTF this was fight with windmills, five decades and not a ripple left behind. I mean, who cared besides Elvira herself? Deep down inside, she was probably forever star struck winner of amateur contest who saw herself fit to bore audiences with her thin voice for decades. The only mildly interesting track here is cute, rare early 1960s single recorded in Italy when her little chirp got her noticed over there (kind of early Mina music) before she returned home and had sunk in mediocrity. She might boast about performing on 365 festivals (guess who had arranged this?) and no one ever cared.

CD2 collect her work on regional festivals in Krapina and Slavonija - this is a fairly uninteresting stage, to be honest, a place where artists who were never successful nationally found their home, singing waltzes and polkas in local dialect. I am not being cynical when I think this is what famous composers used to promote their wives. Here Voća crooned forever, year in, year out, without ever inspiring anyone or leaving any trace of her life work. To be fair, in this kind of music she is perhaps passable because there were no big names to overshadow her. No doubt, there must be audience for this but its simply Sunday afternoon radio fodder, nothing more.