Mladen Vojičić "Tifa" | |
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Mladen Vojičić Tifa live in Sarajevo
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Background information | |
Birth name | Mladen Vojičić |
Also known as | Tifa |
Born | 17 October 1960 |
Origin | Sarajevo, PR Bosnia and Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia |
Genres | Rock and Roll |
Occupation(s) | Singer |
Years active | 1980–present |
Associated acts | Bijelo dugme, Divlje jagode, Vatreni poljubac, Teška industrija |
Website | www.tifa.ba |
Mladen Vojičić, widely known by the nickname/stagename Tifa (born 17 October 1960) is a Bosnian vocalist. He became famous throughout former Yugoslavia for his brief stint as the lead singer of Bijelo dugme in mid-1980s.
Apart from Bijelo dugme, he sang in numerous bands with varying degrees of prominence (most notable being Teška industrija, Vatreni poljubac and Divlje Jagode). Undisputedly a singer with great vocal capabilities, Tifa's impulsive personality and irrational character have often garnered controversy region-wide.
Nowadays, Tifa maintains a relatively successful solo career. In 2017, he moved to Belgrade.
Mladen Vojičić was born in Sarajevo, to a Bosnian Serb father Branko and a Bosnian Croat mother Jelena, at a time when Sarajevo was part of PR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He was nicknamed Tifa before reaching the age of 4 because he loved trains and would often shout "Ide lokomotifa" (properly pronounced "Ide lokomotiva" meaning "Here comes the locomotive") because he had problems pronouncing phoneme "v".
He displayed an early propensity for singing. By the age of 5, he knew the entire repertoire of Indexi. In primary school Tifa was an excellent student. Around that time he was a fan of UK band Sweet. He completed gymnasium, but did not excel at university. In order to please his intellectual father, he tried to work towards a "real job" by attending a number of University of Sarajevo faculties (mechanical engineering, architecture, civil engineering, geodesy), but ultimately abandoned each of them before devoting to music full-time.