Ekatarina Velika

Ekatarina Velika, often abbreviated EKV, was one of the most influential rock bands of Yugoslavia, formed in Belgrade in 1982 out of the ashes of the post-punk group Šarlo Akrobata. Its core and defining members throughout the band's existence were singer and guitarist Milan Mladenović and keyboardist Margita Stefanović, whose interplay of poetic, introspective lyrics and atmospheric, new-wave-tinged arrangements became the band's signature.

The group's debut album, «Katarina II», released in 1984, showed strong new-wave leanings and metaphor-rich lyrics, though it was not an immediate commercial success. Over the following decade EKV developed a darker, more layered sound, gaining a reputation as one of the most poetic and emotionally resonant voices of the Yugoslav rock scene, addressing themes of love, alienation, and mortality with unusual literary depth.

The band's momentum was cut short by Mladenović's death in 1994, which effectively ended EKV as an active group, though its catalogue continued to grow in stature afterward. Decades later, Ekatarina Velika remains regarded as one of the defining and most respected acts of the former Yugoslav rock canon, its songs still widely covered and referenced across the region.