This time some sad news are coming from Slovenia. Singer and composed Tadej Hrušovar, who founded the popular Slovenian music group Pepel in kri in 1974, died today, at the age of 74. The sad news was announced on the official Facebook page of the legendary band, who represented Yugoslavia at the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest with a song ‘Dan Ljubezni’, in Stockholm, Sweden.

Legendary Slovenian musician wrote many evergreen hits, including ‘Dan Ljubezni‘ (eng. The Day of Love), with which he won the Opatija Festival back in 1975 (at that time Eurovision preselection for Yugoslavia), with the band Pepel in kri (eng. Ashes and Blood) and then performed at Eurovision Song Contest in 1975, as representatives of Yugoslavia, where they achieved 13th place.

Although the group had 12 members at the time, only 6 could stand on stage due to Eurovision rules: Tadej Hrušovar, Ditka Haberl (lead singer), Oto Pestner, Ivo Mojzer, Nada Žgur and Palmira Klobos.

Responsible for the only Slovenian Eurovision ‘victory’ to date

Tadej Hrušovar and his bandmates returned to the Eurovision stage 15 years later, in 1990, when Pepel in Kri (including Hruševar) sang backing vocals alongside Italian winner Toto Cutugno for the song Insieme.

At that time, the European Community was born and they had a song on this very topic, ‘Insieme’, which means ‘together’. At the same time, they wanted to show that music also unites and connects, and therefore they put musicians from different countries performing the same song on stage. They decided to connect with neighboring Yugoslavia and got in touch with the radio and television in Belgrade, where they proposed us.

Tadej Hrušovar about how Pepel in kri ended up as backing vocals for Toto Cutugno. (Source: siol.net)

Pepel in Kri later released also their own, Slovenian version of Eurovision winning song, entitled Evropa ’92.

Our thoughts and condolences are with the family and friends of Tadej Hrušovar at this difficult time.