II
Dino Dvornik

About:

20 August 1964 – 7 September 2008

A son of renowned Croatian actor Boris Dvornik, Dino Dvornik was born in Split. He and his elder brother, Dean Dvornik, would play alongside their father in mainstream 1970s movies and TV shows. These included ‘Naše malo misto’ (Our Little Place), ‘Hajdučka vremena’ (Daredevil's Time) (1977) and more. In the early 1980s, Dino and his brother Dean founded Kineski zid (Chinese wall or Great wall), a pop band named after the building in which the Dvornik family lived at that time in Split. It was the first domestic funk record released in Croatia. After one album in 1984 (and a performance at the Split festival) the band already fell apart due to artistic differences. Dean went to perform in several bands (including with his father) before releasing some solo-albums in the nineties. Dino moved to London where he started working in instrumental music or recording with Croatian artists like Goran Karan and Dragan Lukic. At Zagreb Fest in 1988 Dino first made a name for himself when he received the award for best debutant for his song ‘Tebi pripadam’ (I Belong To You). The very same year, he released his first solo album, self titled ‘Dino Dvornik’ followed by ‘Kreativni nered’ (Creative Disorder) in 1989. In August 1989, Dino Dvornik married Danijela (born Kuljiš), with whom he had a daughter, Ella. His popularity was built on a combination of intelligent song lyrics, energetic, wild stage performances and funky disco like music. Both became huge hits and made him a superstar in short time. After two other good albums, a studio and a live album, which went unnoticed because of the war in his country, Dino finally switched from funk to house music in the mid 1990s with the album ‘Priroda i društvo’. Meanwhile the war had a depressing effect to Dino’s state of mind which resulted in high drug abuse. No wonder his follow up album was called "Enfant Terrible", his best selling and most awarded album to date. The single ‘Afrika’ became one of his biggest hits. Another-known song from that period is an ode to his hometown Split, Ništa kontra Splita, which he performed at the prestigious Split Music Festival in 1995, and eventually he won the main award for it. He also collaborated with other music artists in his country include Croatian music diva Josipa Lisac, and his Montenegrin counterpart and close friend, Rambo Amadeus.

With the album ‘Big Mamma’ things went downhill, the critics slanted the album and sales were disappointing. Dino started to state publicly that the war killed his chance of a great career and minimalised his market. At this time Dino’s drug abuse made him an eradicate person swearing during TV shows, mooning the public at shows and being a nuisance. For the album ‘Svicky’ he locked himself in the studio and almost single-handed made the album with the computer (although some musical friends helped out on some tracks). He also started to DJ in local clubs. In 2004 he starred in the movie A Wonderful Night in Split portraying a Split drug lord. In 2006, he and his family became the stars of a Croatian reality show, ‘Dvornikovi’ (The Dvorniks), an entertaining show in the manner of The Osbournes. In 2008, Dino was working on his forthcoming album, ‘Pandorina kutija’ (Pandora's Box). The album was nearing completion. He had already released the first single for the summer, Hipnotiziran (Hypnotized). In March his father (meanwhile a known politician) died of a heart attack. Six months later, 7 September 2008, Dino died of an overdose mixture of anti-depressants and tablets for Hepatitis C. Three days later, Dino was buried at the Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb. One of his final requests was to be buried with his favourite video game, 'Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare'.

On the web:

There is no website dedicated to Dino but someone did put him on
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/dvorniks

Dino's acting career can be traced on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/

If you like this, you probably like... / european counterparts:

Plastic Bertrand (Belgium)

Oliver Mandic (Serbia) (the Croats gonna hate me for this one, but lets be honest, they do sound alike)

What do we think:

DB: Dino stated several times that Oliver Mandic was a great example for him. My guess is that during the war he probably kept that quiet with Mandic being a Serb (with some nationalistic ideas). Although, he wasn’t the ‘enfant terrible’ for nothing. Dvornik detested the war for emotional and financial reasons. Dvornik frequently expressed that the break-up of Yugoslavia had consequences on his album sales, since the market decreased and people focused on other music styles and different artists in their new originated countries during and after the war. Musically Dvornik never choose the path of protesting. He made funky party music. That was his forte and he would stick to that to the end. It is sad that the positive vibe he gave of with his music was not in his head. In the end his depression got the best of him.

Recommended albums:

- Kineski Zid - 1984

♪♪♪♪ - Dino Dvornik - 1989

- Kreativni nered - 1990

- Priroda i društvo - 1993

♪♪♪ - Enfant terrible - 1997

- Big Mamma - 1999

- Svicky - 2002

- Pandorina kutija - 2008

Solo albums by brother Dean Dvornik : Back to Reality - 1995; Čuvar sna  - 1997; Ključ - 1999; Kad odeš ti - 2005

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♪♪♪♪♪ = outstanding album, an absolute must-have
♪♪♪♪ = great album, highly recomended
♪♪♪ = nice album
♪♪ = be careful, requires listening before buying
♪ = best to be avoided