Stjepan Dzimi Stanic, Cowboy Jimmy Singer, Dies at 98

Singer, guitarist and double bassist Stjepan Dzimi Stanic has died at 98. Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) was first to report his death, and domestic outlets, Informer and Tanjug among them, carried the news on Sunday, August 30. Neither source gives an exact date of death, both state only that he died at 98.

In brief:

• Stjepan Dzimi Stanic died at 98, born in Zagreb in 1929
• He launched his career in the early 1950s
• Tanjug says he spent nearly 80 years on stage; Informer puts his run at more than seven decades
• Songs including “Kauboj Dzimi,” “Kukavica,” “Prolazi sve” and “Zamagljen prozor” remain his legacy
• He received Croatia’s Porin lifetime achievement award in 2013
• Croatian Radiotelevision was first to report his death

Stanic was born in Zagreb in 1929. He began performing in the early 1950s as a singer, guitarist and double bassist with a marked pull toward jazz. Tanjug puts his time on stage at nearly 80 years. Informer measures the same career more conservatively, at more than seven decades. The two sources differ by roughly a full decade, but both agree he ranks among the longest-running singing careers to come out of the region.

How did the nickname Jimmy come about?

His debut record, “Cowboy Jimmy,” came about almost by accident, during a performance with Nikica Kalodjera’s vocal ensemble. The song gave him the nickname Dzimi, which stayed with him for the rest of his career and which he later lent to his band, Kauboji Dzimija, with whom he performed for decades.

He left behind songs including “Kauboj Dzimi,” “Kukavica,” “Prolazi sve,” “Moje kobile” and “Suzi.” He sang “Dimnjacar” as a duet with his wife Barbara, one of the rare recordings on which he performed alongside a family member. His biggest evergreens are remembered as “Zamagljen prozor,” “Prolazi sve” and “Jutro ce promeniti sve,” songs still played on regional radio stations today, nearly seven decades after they were written.

In 2013 he received the Porin, Croatia’s top music award, for lifetime achievement. It came after more than six decades of work, by which point Stanic had long been one of the few living witnesses to the birth of Croatian popular music in the 1950s.

According to Tanjug, Stanic performed almost until the very end. A career spanning nearly eight decades, from a debut record cut almost by chance in the 1950s to his last performances in his ninth decade of life, closed the way he had lived it: on stage, guitar or microphone in hand.

Neither Informer nor Tanjug quotes a statement on his death, from family or from colleagues on the scene. Neither source specifies the circumstances of his death or where he died. Both agree on the essential point, however: he was one of the oldest active singers from the region, and his career, whether measured at seven decades or eight, stands as one of the longest in the region’s history.

Srpske.rs had not previously covered Stanic. We report his death based on coverage from Croatian Radiotelevision and domestic news agencies, which cite his nearly eighty-year career and his 2013 Porin award as the defining points of a life spent on stage.