Damir Urban
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Damir Urban is a popular Croatian musician best known for his work as a singer/songwriter for Laufer and for his solo work with his band 4.
[edit] Early years
Damir Urban was born on 19 September 1968 in Rijeka, Croatia, a town that is today well known for its rock scene, where he founded his first band La Bellona as the bassist and main songwriter. It is with this band that he performed live for the first time, although little is left today of La Bellona's music.
In 1986 Urban was part of another band as a vocalist, Laufer, one that defined the Croatian rock scene of the early 1990s. Laufer released their first album, The best of, in 1993 which spawned hits such as "Lopov Jack", "Svijet za nas" and undoubtedly their most popular song, "Moja voda". Urban wrote all of the lyrics and co-wrote most of the music.
Their second album, Pustinje, was released in 1994, shortly after which the band disbanded due to differences over the musical vision Laufer was to follow. Laufer's greatest hits album, Epitaph, was released via Croatia Records in 2004.
[edit] Solo career
Damir Urban released his first solo album in 1996, entitled Otrovna kiša (Poison Rain), to critical and commercial acclaim. The album produced hits such as "Astronaut", but the highlight of his career was yet to follow.
In 1998 he released Žena dijete (Woman-Child) to even greater critical and commercial acclaim, and the album spawned a string of number ones: "Mala truba", "Odlučio sam da te volim" and "Black Tattoo" (which features the Split hip-hop group The Beat Fleet) all received extensive airplay. He refused to receive the Porin (Croatia's equivalent to a Grammy) for the album, as it was nominated for best alternative album and Urban believed his album to be a rock album, therefore, he considered he would be stealing a prize from real alternative artists.
Many Croatian rock critics including Zlatko Gall and Aleksandar Dragaš consider Žena dijete to be one of the best if not the best Croatian album of the 1990s.[citation needed]
After the tremendous success of Žena dijete, Urban was working on a new album entitled Merkur, and two singles were released: "Aroma Satanica" and "Moja", whose video was banned from many Croatian television stations due to graphic depictions of homosexual sex. More than six years passed, and yet Merkur did not see daylight while Damir Urban wrote music for several plays. Finally, in 2004, it was announced that Merkur would be scrapped in favor of another album entitled Retro which was released that same year to mixed reviews but to commercial success.
Retro has highly controversial in that it was a concept album describing the demise of a relationship because of infidelity. In fact, many argue it describes the demise of Urban's relationship with his wife at the time. Most songs describe Damir Urban's new found love, Milica Czerny who actually wrote the lyrics to two songs on the album.
