Croatian artist Elvira Voća was one of those people who were forever lurking from behind, ever-present on ubiquitous 1960s and 1970s pop festivals, another pretty blonde on black & white screens who had hang around since early 1960s to 1991 Croatian Band Aid anti-war anthem "Moja Domovina" but for the life of me I can't remember any big hit or anything important from her and I love digging trough old recordings - either her particular charm eludes me, or a cynic in me can't get pass clumsy covers that forever place Voća squarely into dated schlager generation that was quickly swept away with the tide of rock music. Although lady herself loves to talk about 50 years career and how once she almost made it in Italy, where in he early 1960s she participated in famous travelling "Cantagiro" festival (inspiration or later "Pesma Leta" in Yugoslavia) if you look closely, well she was pretty. And so important that Croatian Wikipedia don't even mention her.
By 1974. Voća have been professionally performing for a decade and "Jugoton" was now releasing not just singles and compilations, but full albums by their biggest stars - everybody from Arsen, Gabi, Tereza and Josipa to Jimmy Stanić and Radojka Šverko got their own LP, so the opportunity came for self- titled debut by pretty wife of famous composer. Considering my everlasting reserve when it comes to this particular artist, it surprises me to say its not half as bad as I expected - it is a very pleasant, mainstream schlager pop collection impeccably arranged and orchestrated, leaning towards family audiences and easy listening background. If in all of this Voća comes across as slightly less interesting version of Gabi Novak, well that was her music identity. Croatian cover of "I'd Love You To Want Me" by Lobo unfortunately came too early (ITD Band re-made it into huge hit later as "Sonja" which must have irked the singer) but the attempt to cover than latest Eurovision winner "Waterloo" unfortunately shows where Voća comes from - as many singers of her generation, she spent too long covering international hits and undiscriminating choices were often hilarious. (She will go on with this next decade with ill-advised albums "Top Ten") As long as Voća sticks to her easy listening, schlager repertoire like mellow bossa nova "Ti Me Nosiš Iznad Snova" its actually perfectly fine, its just that from musical standpoint this don't really make any ripples - however, it must be noted that this is definitely by far the best recording of this artist I have heard so far.
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