Arsenije "Arsen" Dedić was a Croatian singer-songwriter, who was prominent in former Yugoslav music scene as well.
Background
Arsenije Dedić was born in Šibenik, in the Littoral Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (present-day Croatia) as the second child to Jovan Dedić and Veronika (née Mišković). His father Jovan was ethnic Serb, an Orthodox Christian, while his mother Veronika (nicknamed Jelka) was ethnic Croat who converted from Catholicism to Orthodoxy after marrying Jovan. His father was a bricklayer, volunteer firefighter and musician, and his mother was an illiterate housewife, whom Arsen later taught.
Education
He finished music school.
Career
Dedić 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. Arsen was baptized in the Orthodox Church under the name Arsenije, after Archbishop Arsenije III Čarnojević.
Milutin is since a painter and columnist still living in Belgrade.
Arsen studied law at Zagreb but dropped out in 1959, enrolling in the Music Academy of Zagreb, receiving a diploma in 1964. Arsen became a household name in the 1960s, thanks to popular 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 SFR Yugoslavia and maintained this reputation to this day. Dedić died 17 August 2015 in Zagreb, Croatia.
He was 77 years old.