JAN PLESTENJAK
and LARA

(Text translated and adopted on July 9, 2007, by Jadran Aleksic)

Jan Plestenjak is one of the most prominent Slovenian musicians. Being an author, performer and singer, he is not famous and known only for his appearance or kind and gentle manners, but more because of the number of his successful hits that can't even be named all, and for 15 successful years in music business.

He was born in 1973 in Ljubljana, but spent his childhood in Skofja Loka. His mother, who is a painter, had a major influence on his son, although his artistic tendencies turned the musical way… He started playing classical guitar when he was five, first at primary music school in Skofja Loka and continued at High music and ballet school in Ljubljana, just to be admitted to singing and playing studies in Boston, USA, at the age of 18.

Jan participated at the number of festivals in Slovenia and abroad, including the MMS festival (Melodies of the Sea and the Sun) in 1998, Interfest 1998 in Skopje, and the Budva festival in Montenegro 1997 and 1998. He also released eight albums that contained many popular songs. His album »Do raja« (»To paradise«), issued in 2005, is considered to be his most mature and accomplished work so far. The songs on the album turned a different sound and temperament with latino influence that received a warm embrace by public, although also being unnexpectedly dismissed by some critics as being too »Balkan-influenced«. The biggest hit from this album that also received heavy airplay, was »Od pekla do raja« (»From hell to heaven«), performed by female vocalist Eva. As we probably remember, another song, »Barka iz perja«, also participated in OGAE Video Contest 2006 and ended up third.

Jan is still single and lives currently in Strunjan on Slovenian coast, where he runs a bar called »La Playa«.

The song »Sam da ti mas mene rada«, the first single that was taken from his last, ninth studio album »Soba 102«, was first presented to audience in the interval act at the final evening of this year's EMA.

»Soba 102« (»Room #102«), Slovenian entry at this year's OGAE Song Contes, was released as another single in March 2007 from the same-titled album. It easily swept away with all the competitions at pre-contest.

This song in modern rhythms (leading you in a way that spring meets the summer) is an ideal game… the game, played by two main protagonists, Jan Plestenjak and Lara, the former singer in the band Leeloojamais. The duo has already been predicted a success by those who had attended Jan's recent concert at Cankarjev dom.

The lyrics and music were written, as it is the case with all the songs on the album, by Jan himself, and it was arranged by Enes Tvrtkovic, so it is the composition made by a long-term, successful team that left most of the hits from Jan's last two albums behind them.

Leeloojamais, the band that took a major leap from being a small local band into the one of the biggest national ones, proved to be exellent and deadly-good on the stage, gained a huge support from their fans, friends and other musicians at home as well as abroad, and won some acclaimed prizes and nominations.