Tsetsa Velickovic was a pig farmer

In most people's fantasies, the life of the stars was always as easy as a song and they were always pampered of fate. To the universal favorite Tsetsa Velichkovich – Raznatovich has not had it easy for her and she has not always been a star, beloved by millions and a millionaire, writes burgas24.bg. strong>

Ceca is that Serbian pop-folk singer whose fans gave her the nicknames "Ceca nacionale", "queen of turbo-folk", "mother of the nation" and "Serbian mother". But at the beginning of her conscious life it was quite difficult for her, so difficult that she didn't even have money for a bus ticket, and she got her education quite late in life, becoming a pig farmer – graduated from school in absentia with the specialty "pig breeding technician".

She was born on June 14, 1973 in Zitoraja, a village in southern Serbia.

The village of Tsetsa

Tsetsa's mother – Mira, is a teacher, and her father – a mechanic who later became a political figure and chairman of the municipality. The singer has a sister Lydia, who is eleven months younger than her. They lived with grandfather Chedomir and grandmother Velika, who raised them.

Childhood

Tsetsa was a fast developing child and was talking at six months and walking at nine months. She went on stage for the first time at the age of 9 - in a school production, where she admired the audience with her talent as an actress. It often happened that she did not have money for a bus ticket and returned from the events that were held in the neighboring villages on foot. Later, she says that in one weekend she already earns 700 marks, while her mother has a salary of 25 marks, writes Biografija.org, quoted by "Telegraf". “Mother of the Nation“ graduated from primary school with excellent results, but devoted himself to the career of a singer and, despite his mother's pleas, did not continue his education.

Many years later, she graduated from a correspondence high school of veterinary medicine, majoring in "pig farming technician". He sings in the evening and prepares his lessons during the day.

Dresses to borrow

One of the key moments in Ceca's career was the summer of 1987, when he met the accordionist, composer and arranger Mirko Kordić. He noticed her in a restaurant where she was singing only when her older colleagues allowed her to.

He sees her talent and asks her parents for permission to take her to Belgrade. When she was only 15 years old, she moved in with Mirko and his wife, who lent her dresses for performances, taught her to apply makeup, do her hair and behave professionally on stage. Today, Tsetsa is already the queen of the stage, and a whole team takes care of her hairstyles.

The Unrealized Actress

Since then, Tsetsa's dream has been to enter the Faculty of Dramatic Arts and become an actress. Few people know that it is Ceca Velichkovic who plays the iconic role of the famous Koštana in the film – classic "Dirty Blood", based on the book by Bora Stankovic. However, the tape was shown six years later because Tsetsa's future husband, Arkan, forbade it, demanding that Tsetsa's sex scenes with the cult actor Rade Šerbedzija be deleted.

In 1993, she began a collaboration with Marina Tukakovic and Aleksandar Radulovic Foote, which would lead to numerous hits. In addition to Marina and Foot, one of the collaborators was today's folk star Dino Merlin. The huge success of this recording was crowned with a concert at Taşmaidan Stadium, attended by 12,000 people.

In 1995, she recorded one of the best albums of her career, dispelling rumors that she would stop playing music after meeting Arkan.

Arcanus



There are different stories about their meeting with Željko Raznatović Arkan, with some mentioning that her father asked Arkan to get her out of a club in Bern where she was at the time. The singer became a member of Arkan's party - Party of Serbian Unity (SSJ), and during his visit to her village Zhitoraja, her parents welcomed him warmly.

At first, however, they did not approve of the relationship. And the enamored Tsetsa directly threatened them: "You can all kill each other, but I will marry him because I adore him“.

There are legends about their great love, about the endless phone calls, about the chocolates with which she tempted him and about the infamous nickname "Butko", with which she called him.

The two married on February 19, 1995 in a ceremony called by many "the wedding of the century". On that day, a column of 56 jeeps jammed the streets of Belgrade, led by a jaguar, on which instead of registration numbers was written "Cetsa and Zelko".

For the 800 guests, there was "chicken milk" on the table, and the wedding cake weighed 70 kilograms. The wedding expenses, amounting to 100,000 marks, were paid by the scandalous Italian businessman Giovanni di Stefano, as a gift to the newlyweds.

The event was broadcast live by 36 news outlets, including: "BBC", "CNN" and TV Pink, and a special VHS tape was made with a recording of the wedding that everyone could buy. On December 10, 1996, she gave birth to a son, Velko, and on May 25, 1998 – daughter Anastasia. They wanted to have five children, but this is not happening.

Arkan was killed on January 15, 2000 in the Hotel "Intercontinental" in Belgrade. After a long media break, the singer continues her career.

Wealth

Both before and after Arkan, her singing career is brilliant. There are legends about her album "Decenija", which reached a circulation of 800,000 copies and became the best-selling album in the Balkans, as well as about her solo concert at the Maracana in 2002 in front of 90,000 fans. Later, she gathered 140,000 people at her concert - in 2004.

Her videos have millions of views on YouTube, she was an inspiration for Roberto Cavalli, and her compatriots call her the "mother of the nation". Her children, her songs and her fans are her whole life.

Today she is one of the richest people in Serbia – the girl who didn't have money to buy a bus ticket wore dresses on loan and would have been a pig technician if she hadn't become a star.