Margita Stefanović

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Margita Stefanović

Background information
Born	April 1, 1959(1959-04-01)
Died	September 18, 2002 (aged 43)
Genre(s)	Rock, post-punk, New Wave
Instrument(s)	Keyboards
Years active	1982–2002
Associated acts	Katarina II / Ekatarina Velika

Margita "Magi" Stefanović (April 1, 1959 – September 18, 2002) was Yugoslav and Serbian musician best known as a keyboardist of a Serbian rock band Ekatarina Velika.

Born in Belgrade as the only child of a well-known theatre and television director Slavoljub Stefanović-Ravassi, in addition to compulsory education, Margita also completed Josip Slavenski music high school as the most talented pianist in her class. That distinction led to an offer of further studies at famous Moscow Conservatory, which she turned down due to family reasons and instead enrolled at University of Belgrade's Faculty of Architecture where she was no less successful. All throughout her architecture studies, she still continued practising the piano as well as playing and occassionally touring with various small orchestras.

After graduating university, she began to take an interest in Belgrade underground music scene along with her then-boyfriend Srđan Vejvoda, which impressed her as the completely different lifestyle from the one she was used to. By early 1982 she got introduced to Milan Mladenović by her cousin Gagi Mihajlović, and at one of Katarina II's early rehearsals, she got an offer to join the band. Several months later after returning from the trip to South America she decided to take the still-standing offer, joining Katarina II in late 1982.

Margita was EKV's member until it's very end in late 1994. During her time with the band she also collaborated on albums of many other Yugoslav bands such as Karlowy Vary, Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors, Van Gogh, Babe, etc.

She composed the score for several TV films (Prvi put s ocem na jutrenje, Vera Hofmanova, Povratak Vuka Alimpića, Plavi plavi) and theatre plays (Klasni neprijatelj, Tri sestre). In 1985 she was introduced as an actress (the role of Dragana) in the movie Tajvanska kanasta (The Taiwan Canasta) directed by Goran Marković.

After Milan's death and EKV's end, Magi continued her work as a musician. During 1994/1995 she played in a band called Kurajberi, which gathered several Belgrade musicians and was focused mainly on performing covers at club gigs and jam sessions. In 1995, with a group of young Belgrade musicians involved in a techno movement, she formed a band called EQV and released an album Ti si sav moj bol (You are All of My Anguish) named after the famous EKV song, the album itself containing a techno version of the same song. The album was published for Austrian label Coop Arts & Crafts Unlimited. In October the same year, EQV participated in Tactic Festival in Vienna. She further continued contributing as a guest star on albums and concerts of many Serbian bands and occasionally played with bands Glisers, Zion banda and Direktori. In 1996 she played several unplugged concerts with Električni orgazam, one of which was recorded and released the same year by B92 as Živo i akustično (Live and Acoustic). During that time she was also involved in several significant music projects (S one strane duge, Pesme iznad Istoka i Zapada).

Sometime in 1996 Margita became a member of Ars Antibari writers society from Bar, which published several of her stories in two books (Izgleda da će Jugo (Bar, 1996) and Da li da ti kažem tko te je ubio, Gea? (Beograd, 1999)). In 2002 she composed the music for Kaput mrtvog čoveka (The Coat of a Dead Man) theater play directed by Hajdana Baletić, which turned out to be Magi's last ever music-related work.

Margita died in Belgrade, on September 18, 2002, aged 43.

[edit] Trivia

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Margita was reportedly the subject of first ever graffiti that appeared in Belgrade. The graffiti was written on the wall opposite her apartment building, and it said "Margita je dečak" ("Margita is a boy"), which was to imply she had been an atypical girl of the era. The graffiti was sprayed by Nebojša Krstić, at the time member of a Serbian new wave band VIS Idoli.