Arsenije "Arsen" Dedić was a Yugoslav and Croatian singer-songwriter. He wrote and performed chansons as well as film music. He was also an award-winning poet and was one of the best-selling poets of former Yugoslavia and Croatia.
Biography
Dedić was born in Šibenik, in the Littoral Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, today Šibenik-Knin County, in region of Dalmatia, within Republic of Croatia, as the second child of Jovan Dedić and Veronika. His father Jovan was an Orthodox Christian ethnic Serb, while his mother Veronika was a Croat who converted from Catholicism to Serb Orthodoxy after marrying Jovan. His father was a bricklayer, volunteer firefighter, and musician, while his mother was an illiterate housewife, whom Dedić later taught to write and read. Dedić was baptized in the Serbian Orthodox Church under the name Arsenije, after Serbian Archbishop Arsenije III Čarnojević. He finished music school. He and his older brother Milutin left Šibenik for Zagreb and Belgrade, respectively, in 1957. He studied law at the University of Zagreb, but dropped out in 1959, enrolling in the Music Academy of Zagreb, receiving a diploma in 1964. Dedić became a household name in the 1960s, thanks topop music festivals and his brand of music, which was at first influenced by Dalmatian folklore, but is mostly comparable to the French chanson genre. Throughout the decades Dedić became one of the most respected musicians in former Yugoslavia and maintained that reputation all the way to the his death.
Illness and death
At the beginning of 2014, Dedić fell and had difficulties to walk, so he had to use a stick. Because of the unbearable pain in July 2015, he underwent surgery for hip endoprosthesis in the orthopedic hospital in Krapinske Toplice, followed by a two-week rehabilitation. On 28 July, he spent his 77th birthday with family and friends in Zagreb. At the end of July, he got severe inflammation most likely as a complication after the surgery, because of which he had the liver transplant in 2004 and had been under immunosuppressive therapy since then, and was taken to intensive care. At first, his condition improved and the medical records were better. On 8 August, it was reported that his inflammation had calmed down and responded well to drugs. He was expected to be released home, but his wife Gabi Novak, found him in a serious condition lying on the floor next to the walkerand speaking indistinctly. He was admitted on the emergency neurology of KBC Zagreb, but his condition on 13 August drastically worsened. On 14 August, his lungs failed and he was attached to the respirator, and soon the other organs failed successively. Novak refused a high-risk surgery. Dedić died at the KBC Zagreb, at 9:00 pm, on 17 August 2015, aged 77. The commemoration was held at the Croatian National Theatre in Šibenik and the Croatian Music Institute in Zagreb. He was cremated and buried, according to his own wishes, in the circle of his closest family, far from the public eyes, on 25 August 2015 at the Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb.
Personal life
Dedić had a daughter Sandra from his first marriage with Vesna Suligoj, a grandniece of Antun Gustav Matoš, one of the greatest Croatian poets. Sandra is married to Alen Slavica, a popular singer-songwriter and they have daughter Ema, born in 2011. In 1973 Dedić married his second wife Gabi Novak, a German-born Croatian pop singer. Their son Matija is one of the most respected jazz pianists in Croatia. He has a daughter Lu, with his wife Marina Scotti.
