Zdenko Runjić

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Zdenko Runjić (October 26, 1942 - October 27, 2004) is Croatian songwriter from Split.

Zdenko Runjić was born in Slavonski Brod. In his long career he established himself as the most prolific and most popular songwriter of former Yugoslavia, now Croatia. Many of his songs, inspired by the folk traditions of Dalmatia, became classics and Runjić helped the careers of many notable Croatian musicians like Oliver Dragojević and Doris Dragović. He was especially successful at prestigious Split Music Festival.

He wrote almost 700 songs and sold them in multimillion numbers on various LPs and CDs. He wrote more than 200 songs just for Oliver Dragojević. Many of his songs were recorded all around the world.

His song "Galeb i ja" is one of the most beautiful songs ever written and it became a unofficial hymn of Split and Dalmatia.

He was also a brilliant businessman and had his own record company called Skalinada and it became of the most important record companies in Croatia.

However, his success also brought him many enemies and in 1993, following the dispute with Split Music Festival organisers, he founded rival music festival called Melodije hrvatskog Jadrana (Melodies of Croatian Adriatic) and it soon became the best music festival in the country.

He died from a stroke while recovering from the aftermath of a heart attack.

He will be remembered as a unique musician, a wonderful charismatic and brilliant man who created a unique sound that gave Croatia and Dalmatia their musical image.