Slavko Perovic, Singer Behind Mama Huanita, Dies at 93
Serbian pop singer Slavko Perovic has died at 93. He was best known for the hit Mama Huanita and was one of the pioneers of Belgrade Television.
Serbian pop singer Slavko Perovic has died at 93. The news was announced on Monday, September 28, 2026, and was reported by RTS and RTV, as well as by the portals Informer and Gledaj.rs.
Perovic was born on June 5, 1934, in Belgrade. He rose to fame in the 1960s, when he performed Mexican-style songs in what was then Yugoslavia, a genre that was hugely popular at the time. His best-known hits include Mama Huanita, Pesma majci, Ja prodajem crne oci, Jedan dan zivota and Ja pijem casu gorkih suza. He wrote the lyrics himself for Jedan dan zivota, which went on to become one of his biggest hits.
He also performed in duets, most often with Nikola Karovic and Silvana Armenulic. His records were released by the Jugoton label and sold in the millions. According to Wikipedia, he recorded roughly a hundred archived music sessions for Radio Belgrade.
Perovic performed at festivals in Split and Opatija, as well as at the Belgrade Spring festival. He took his early musical steps at the Ivo Lola Ribar Cultural and Arts Society, where he grew up surrounded by opera and concert performances before turning to popular music.
Perovic was also one of the pioneers of Belgrade Television, which began broadcasting in 1958. As early as 1962, he was performing with his trio on the show Sredom u sest, hosted by actress Beba Loncar. For Belgrade Television, under editor Bosko Pantic, he recorded several music programs dedicated to Belgrade and Serbian history, in which he performed old Serbian recordings alongside compositions by Kornelije Stankovic and Isidor Bajic.
Mexican-style songs, the genre Perovic became known for, were so popular in Yugoslavia at the time that other singers of the era performed them as well. According to RTV, his voice and repertoire are still cited today as part of that period’s musical archive.
He is the father of Sandra Perovic, a journalist and film critic who now serves as editor-in-chief of RTS’s Entertainment Program.
Over a career spanning decades, Perovic went from a choir singer at the Ivo Lola Ribar Cultural and Arts Society, through the festival stages of Split and Opatija, to becoming one of the first faces audiences saw on the newly founded Belgrade Television. That combination, million-selling Jugoton records on one hand and a steady presence on television screens on the other, explains why his renditions of Mexican-style songs are still remembered as the sound of 1960s Yugoslavia.
Sources have not yet disclosed the place or cause of Slavko Perovic’s death, nor the date of the funeral.
