Miso Kovac dies at 85, Poljud sings as news arrives
The singer died at 85. The news was announced at Poljud during the Hajduk v Gorica match, and the fans answered with one of his songs.
Miso Kovac died on October 31, 2026, at the age of 85. His death was confirmed to the portal Index by sources close to the singer. According to Novi list, which cites Index, he died at around 3:30 p.m. at his home in Split.
Reports differ on one point. Nedeljnik, citing Slobodna Dalmacija, says he died in a Split hospital. The place of death should therefore be read with attribution, not as an established fact.
According to Novi list, before his death he expressed a wish to be buried in Zagreb.
How did the news reach Poljud?
His death was announced over the public address system at Poljud during the match between Hajduk and Gorica. When the announcer read out the news, the stands began to sing. Hajduk fans sang in unison the words of one of his songs: “Tonight we will tell the earth, as we would a mother.”
Poljud meant more to him than a stadium. After the death of his 16-year-old son Edi in 1992, he held the concert “Night of Candles” there, in front of about 50,000 people. His songs have been sung at that stadium for years, and Hajduk was one of his great loves.
From an upholsterer in Sibenik to Jugoton
Mate Miso Kovac was born on July 16, 1941, in Sibenik, during the Italian occupation. He grew up on the street that also raised Vice Vukov and Arsen Dedic. Decades later he recorded the duet “We Are Leaves From the Same Branch” with Dedic.
At 16 he decided to sing, after a performance by the Sibenik singer Ljubo Lucev. He finished secondary industrial school as an upholsterer. In 1961 he shared first place at the “First Voice of Sibenik” competition with Mirko Vuksic, and chose an Elvis Presley single as his prize.
After military service in Belgrade he moved to Zagreb. At a competition in Karlovac he performed Ray Charles’s “I Can’t Stop Loving You” and caught the attention of producers. His first unofficial performance came in the autumn of 1964 at Zagreb’s Gradska kafana. That same year he signed with Jugoton. His first record was a cover of the Charles song, “I Can’t Stop Loving You” in his own language.
How many records did he sell?
Stardom came in 1969 with “You Will Never Come Back”, a song written by Djordje Novkovic. Novi list and N1 report that the single sold nearly 190,000 copies and was the second best-selling Jugoton record of that year. Telegraf, citing available data, writes that about half a million copies were sold. The figures do not match, and no source provides a document they come from.
That same year, with five records selling more than 250,000 copies, he became the label’s best-selling singer. His collaboration with Novkovic lasted until the composer’s death in 2007. According to his record label, he sold more than 20 million records and other sound carriers in total.
Winning the Split Festival in 1971 with “The Dawn Will Weep” made him the most popular singer in Yugoslavia. That year he also nearly died in a traffic accident near Zadar. He grew the mustache that became his trademark to cover a scar above his lip.
In 1972 he watched Elvis Presley at Madison Square Garden in New York. The performance of “My Way” left a mark on him. Decades later, in a conversation with Aleksandar Stankovic, Kovac described that moment by saying that the “song joined with the sky”.
Two decades at the peak followed. His hits include:
- “Another Man Untangles Her Hair, and I Love Her”
- “You Stayed the Same”
- “If You Leave Me”
- “Tomorrow They Judge Me”
- “I Haven’t Cried Over You for a Long Time”
- “You Are the Song of My Soul”
He was named singer of the year five times, and in 1989 personality of the year in Yugoslavia. After the difficult 1990s he returned with a concert at the Dom Sportova hall, recorded new albums and duets with his daughter Ivana, and won the Split Festival again. “Dalmatino” stands out from that period. He received the Porin lifetime achievement award in 2012.
Family and losses
He married three times: Ljubica Komadina, Anita Baturina, a former Miss Yugoslavia, and Lidija Pintaric. With Baturina he has two children, Edi and Ivana. They divorced in 1996, Telegraf reports. Lidija Pintaric stayed by his side until the end of his life.
His son Edi died in Zagreb in 1992, aged 16. Kovac then announced that he would no longer perform, but he did not keep that promise. He recorded “A Song for Edi” and later returned to his audience.
