Daniel (singer)

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Daniel (Cyrillic: Даниел) is the stage name of Milan Popović (Милан Поповић) (born October 29, 1955 in Titograd, Montenegro, FPR Yugoslavia), a Montenegro-born pop singer who made his name in Croatia. He is sometimes credited as Danijel Popović (Данијел Поповић).

1 Biography
2 Personal
3 Discography
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Born to a father from Montenegro and a Belgian mother, Popović was raised in Titograd, but made his name in Zagreb, whereto he moved in 1977, pursuing a career in pop music.

In 1983, as a regional representative of Montenegro (TV Titograd), he won the right to represent SFR Yugoslavia at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Džuli" ("Julie"). His national victory was somewhat unexpected because most observers saw popular folk singer Lepa Brena, a regional representative of Vojvodina (TV Novi Sad), as a clear favourite.

Daniel proved skeptics wrong by achieving 4th place in Munich, equaling at the time the best ever Yugoslav placing at the Eurovision Song Contest (Lola Novaković's 4th place finish in 1962). "Džuli" was also a huge hit in Yugoslavia: the album sold 717,166 copies while the single sold further 80,883 – a huge number for Yugoslavia in both cases.

The song was a big hit in many other European countries as well, including Norway, where Daniel played several venues. Early in 1984, he performed at a NRK broadcast TV show prior to the Sarajevo Winter Olympics, playing "Džuli" and a new song called "Miss You".

Like many other ESC contestants, Daniel failed to build on his triumph, and his commercial appeal gradually declined. By the 1990s, his popularity was already on the wane, though he managed to register one more moderate hit in 1991 – a track called "Daj obuci levisice". A few years earlier, he had also featured in the Lepa Brena folk hit "Jugoslovenka" along with Alen Islamović and Vlado Kalember.

Daniel stayed in Croatia during the war. In the nationalistic atmosphere of the newly independent country, being from Montenegro didn't bode well for his chances of commercial success, so he made every effort to hide his ethnic origin and birth name.^{[citation needed]} It didn't help much, since he soon disappeared into anonymity after a few unsuccessful albums. Tapping into his savings, he then opened a studio and started producing records for performers like Nives Celzijus (her first and so far only album Cura moderna).

He'd foray back into singing only occasionally. During the summer of 2001, he took part in the Sunčane Skale festival in Herceg Novi, but managed to get only 7 points (winner Ivana Banfić received 107).

In early 2005, after an extended commercially-barren period in Croatia, Daniel moved back to Montenegro, hoping to resurrect his stuttering singing career.

In the autumn of 2005, Daniel's performance in Munich in 1983 was included in a collection of two double DVDs and two double CDs celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest. The collection, which consisted of all the winners as well as a few of the most favourite non-winning contestants, was entitled Congratulations (1956-1980 and 1981-2005). A glimpse of Daniel's 1983 act could also be seen in the celebration show broadcast from Copenhagen in October of 2005.

In January 2007, esctoday.com reported that Daniel would take part in the Croatian preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest, Dora, together with his son Sebastian (20) and daughter Isabella (16) as well as Snježana Ivana Pandl (17). Their song didn't make it to the final selection process.

[edit] Personal

In August 2005, he was hit with public allegations of spousal abuse by his Croatian ex-wife Sandra Bagarić who accused him of "repeated, jealousy-induced physical and mental maltreatment".[1] She claimed to have been forced to flee the couple's Podgorica home with their son Dominik, and also blamed Daniel for her two miscarriages.

In March 2008, news appeared in certain Balkan media outlets about a possibility that Daniel might end up serving time in prison due to not paying child and spousal support to his ex-wife Sanja Bjedov and their two children Sebastian and Isabella.[2]