Katarina Grujic: I Spent a Month in the Hospital
Ahead of her first solo concert at MTS Hall, the singer says her kidney was failing, visits were not allowed and she spent most of the time alone.
Katarina Grujic said on the show “Premijera - Vikend specijal” that her kidney was failing and that she spent a month in the hospital. The statements were published on October 5, 18 days before her first solo concert at MTS Hall in Belgrade, scheduled for October 23.
What did the singer say about her days in the hospital?
She spoke about her vocal cord surgery and then about her kidney. She gave the length of her hospital stay herself, and this is what she said about how it ended:
“I spoke honestly about the vocal cord surgery, about when my kidney was failing, I was in the hospital for a month, I didn’t know whether I would keep that kidney or not… When you don’t have your health, you have nothing in life.”
She then added that she has recovered: “Thank God I managed to recover, get well, come out healthy, and I appreciate everything so much more,” Grujic said.
Visits were banned
The hardest part, she says, was the period when she could not see the people closest to her. By her account, her parents did not take it as calmly as she did.
“I’m the calmest one, my parents were not really. What broke me was that I was alone most of the time, visits were banned.”
What do we know about the October 23 concert?
The concert is her first solo show, and Katarina says that just mentioning the date brings on stage fright. “I’m sure I have prepared a big spectacle for the audience, and all they have to do is come,” she said. The concert was revealed with a poster at her birthday celebration, along with three new songs, and the way it was announced surprised many people. “I got over 20 messages asking whether I was pregnant,” she recalled. She also says that she saw then which of her colleagues offer her genuine happiness and support.
Guests are part of the story. Grujic said the audience assumes they will be Uros Zivkovic and Andreana Cekic, and that there will be two more guests. She confirmed one name outright:
“We have to reveal it, Ognjen Amidzic will be a guest too, we have a duet. People constantly ask for that song ‘Vino po vidno’, even though I recorded it ten years ago, it would be a shame not to perform it.”
The setlist will include her well-known songs and big hits, as well as covers of other artists’ songs. She could not fulfill the audience’s requests in full: if she sang every song she has released, the concert would last four hours, she says.
A party follows the concert. “There will be a spectacle afterward too, two nights, two days. I’m doing it at my best man’s restaurant, I have organized everything,” the singer said.
What did she say about prices on the estrada scene?
In the same conversation she also turned to her colleagues and to performance fees. She made the remark without hedging:
“Estrada is greedy. Every day we get new singers, rappers, they put out one song, get a hit, and then slap on a price: ‘That costs 10,000 euros,’ then singers who have been doing this job for 30 years can’t reach that price, so it goes like a food chain… They are ruining the business, those clubs and owners can’t pay the price of the tickets, and those people have no money. To go out you need 200 to 500 euros, and that is abnormal.”
