MAYA BEROVIC
Maya Berovic was born 8 July 1987 in the village of Malesici, near Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She lost her father when she was three years old. Berovic family lived in Malesici until the end of the Bosnian War in 1995, alongside her mother and older brother; Maya relocated to Bratunac where her mother is originally from.
In Bratunac, she attended school and first began practising music. From age 12 she used to sing in local discotheques every weekend until she turned 18. Berovic grew up listening to artists such as Dragana Mirkovic, Lepa Brena and Ceca and lists them as her musical influences.
Still a teenager, Maya was signed to the Belgrade-based record label Grand Production and released her debut studio album “Zivot uzivo”in August 2007, achieving initial success with the song “Dzin i limunada”. She soon parted ways with Grand Production and over a year later, in December 2008, she released her second studio album “Crno zlato” under the short-lived label IN Music. Two months after the release of the album, Maya debuted a self-released non-album single “Koliko te ludo volim ja” in February 2009.
Her big breakthrough came in February 2011 upon the release of her third and eponymous album, Maya, and the success of the feminist ballad “Djevojacko prezime”, which was the recipient of the “Hit of the Year” award in Sarajevo. She signed a recording contract with the record label City Records and released the single “Leti ptico slobodno” in June 2012. Her fourth studio album, titled “Djevojka sa juga” was first released 17 October in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and 20 October in neighboring countries. She has said that she was “extremely satisfied” with her new labels support of her music. Following the release, Maya held her first concert in Belgrade in 2013.
In April 2014 Berovic participated in Pink Music Festival with a club-oriented song called “Alkohol”, which was the most-listened to of the 26 entries. The music video was done by the video production company IDJVideos and premiered on 9 May 2014. “Opasne vode”, her fifth album and second consecutive project with City Records, was released 27 October 2014, and “Alkohol” served as the lead single. In addition to an updated and slightly different sound, a new fashion style also accompanied the new record.
In March 2016 Berovic released “Pauza”, a non-album single. The single sparked controversy because of Maya singing in Serbian dialect instead of Bosnian that she sang in before. Maya claimed she had done that because her Serbian songwriters wrote in their dialect and the lyrics didn’t always sound good and often couldn’t rhyme in Bosnian one. However, she proceeded to sing in Serbian even when working with Bosnian songwriters. On 8 July 2016, Berović’s 29th birthday, she released “To me radi”featuring Bosnian rappers Jala Brat and Buba Corelli. It was the first collaborative song in her career and would eventually become one of her greatest hits.
Maya continued collaboration with Jala and Buba with her sixth studio album “Viktorijina tajna” It was released on 2 July 2017 through City Records, produced by the Sarajevo-based Imperia production. This album has more urban sound than her previous pop-folk releases. “Viktorijina tajna” has reached enormous success, reaching more than 100 million views on YouTube and dominating charts on streaming service Deezer. All songs from the album became instant hits and thanks to its success Maya had all venues she had performed in sold out; she even went on a US tour with Jala Brat and Buba Corelli which also went very successfully. This album is arguably by far the most successful in Maya’s 10 year old career. On 9 July 2018 she released her seventh album 7, again with Jala Brat and Buba Corelli.
On 1 November 2019, she released two new songs, “Zmaj” and “Uloga”.
On 6 August 2020, Maya published a new album: “Intime”. She presented 10 brand new songs along with music videos.