Bata Illic

Bata Illic, born on September 30, 1939 in Belgrade, then Yugoslavia, now Serbia, is a German pop singer. pop singer with Serbian roots. His career spans several decades and has made him a permanent fixture on the German-language music scene.

Born the son of a tax official, Illic studied philology after leaving school, specializing in English and Italian. He then worked as a teacher for two years. During this time, he met the musician Andreas Triphan, with whom he founded the band “Bata Illic & Band”. Triphan took on the role of drummer and also supported the project financially. The collaboration ended in 1961, as Illic decided against a longer tour of France.

Bata Illic has been married to his wife Olga since 1963. The couple initially lived in Frankfurt am Main and moved to Gräfelfing near Munich in 1978, where they still live today.

He made his first international appearance in 1963 when he and his band “Grandpa’s Whites” received a contract for the American club “Twister” in Bad Kissingen. Engagements in other German cities such as Fulda, Berlin and Bad Hersfeld followed. Illic and Triphan met again in 1966 at a festival in Bern, but a lasting collaboration did not materialize.

His solo career began in 1967 with the recording of his first record. Two of his first hits, Mit verbundenen Augen and Schuhe, so schwer wie ein Stein, reached the charts in 1968. His breakthrough came in 1972 with Michaela, one of the best-known German hits of the time. Numerous appearances on music programs such as ZDF-Hitparade and a guest appearance in the film Blau blüht der Enzian consolidated his success.

Things became quieter around Illic in the 1980s, but he celebrated a comeback in the 1990s. Today, he occasionally performs on television and radio, often with German-language interpretations of Charles Aznavour or Adriano Celentano as well as his own classics.

He became known to a wider audience in 2008 through his participation in the RTL show Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus! In the reality show, he came third behind Michaela Schaffrath and the winner Ross Antony.

The single Tschewaptschitschi and the album Herzgeschichten were released in the same year. With the single Wie ein Liebeslied, a duet with Eike Immel, he made it into the top 20 of the German charts for the first time in 33 years.

Studio albums by Bata Illic

• 1968 The world is full of love
• 1971 Voice of longing
• 1972 Girls when you are lonely
• 1973 As long as I live
• 1974 Black Madonna
• 1975 Slavic dreams
• 1975 I still have sand in my shoes from Hawaii
• 1976 With the eyes of love
• 1977 Bata Illic sings great world successes
• 1977 Bata Illic
• 1987 Just a little tenderness
• 1988 Happy hours
• 1990 A little love
• 2008 Heart stories
• 2008 Like a love song
• 2008 I want to be the button on your blouse – The best of the best
• 2011 Where the sun never sets
• 2022 Golden times