Back in the day, I thought this young singer was just a clever, short-lived gimmick - he sounded exactly like younger version of beloved Oliver Dragojević with exactly same vocal mannerisms and the colour of his voice was so similar to older singer that I expected this cannot continue successfully but time proved me wrong, he actually went on from strength to strength. What I didn't know at the time was that Petar Grašo actually writes his own material and in fact he actually started as composer, the song "Boginja" that I always considered one of the best songs of Dragojević was writen for him by 16 years old Grašo.
When his debut album "Mjesec Iznad Oblaka" was released, Petar Grašo was only 21 (!) but he was already overflowing with strong material - almost the whole album was composed by him and even though I always found similarity of his voice to that of Dragojević a bit unsettling, now I understand this is done affectionately as homage. The album was smash hit and it ruled radio waves at the time. It basically sounds like younger version of Oliver Dragojević - everything we knew and loved from him (Dalmatian dialect, effective rasp in the voice at perfect moment, rousing gospel choir, etc) was present here but coming from somebody else. Since older singer was widely admired and loved, the appearance of someone who so closely resembles him but writes his own, strong material was almost sure-fire success. Upon closer inspection, I hear not only Dragojević but also influence of Italian singer Zucchero ("Baraba") that suggest Grašo could easily continue as blue-eyed soul singer if he was inclined so.
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