Vanna (singer)

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This article is about the Croatian singer. For other uses, see Vanna (disambiguation).

Ivana Ranilović-Vrdoljak is a pop singer from Croatia. She is also known with her artist name Vanna.

[edit] Biography

Ivana Ranilović was born on September 1, 1970 in Koprivnica.

Although Vanna won prizes in various national children and youth festivals, her official debut was at Zagrebfest, a contest held in the Croatian capital Zagreb in 1989. In that year she left her hometown to live and study in Zagreb. During the time of her studies she performed in a band called Boa.

In 1992 her professional career as a singer started. She joined a band called Electro Team and became an overnight star. Not only being a singer but also co-author and song-writer of all the songs performed by Electro Team she won many important Croatian music prizes. Their albums all became platinum (there is no system in Croatia that monitors record sales and all figures are provided by records companies, therefore, it is highly probable they never reached the platinum mark, as platinum records are distributed by record companies in Croatia). The song Tek Je 12 Sati became quite a hit, even popular elsewhere in former Yugoslavia.

In 1997 Vanna left Electro Team to start a solo career and record her first album, I To Sam Ja. Since then Vanna has published three more solo albums and has won several other prizes.

She won the first place at the Zadarfest in Zadar three years in a row, in 1999, 2000 and 2001. Her album 24 Sata reached gold.

In 2000 she came second in Dora, the Croatian national final for the Eurovision Song Contest with the song written by Bruno Kovačić and Ivana Plechinger. Being the runner up, she decided to participate again in 2001 and now won with Tonci Huljic's song Strune Ljubavi. Shortly after Dora she gave birth to her daughter Jana. Vanna represented Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 in Copenhagen on May 12, 2001 and finished 10th. She sang the song in English, now entitled Strings Of My Heart.

After the Eurovision Song Contest Vanna released a live album called Vanna U Lisinkom and won Zadarfest (an amateur song contest) again with Više Nisi Moj. She won prizes in several other festivals and is about to release a new album.

Vanna is married to Andrija Vrdoljak (son of Antun Vrdoljak who is a Croatian film director) has two children (a boy and a girl) and currently lives in Zagreb.