Nikola Rokvic on his brother Dario: we are brothers

Nikola Rokvic spoke in a new interview, published on October 21, about his brother Dario Rokvic, who lives in Canada, about the last year of his father Marinko Rokvic’s life and about his November 13 concert at Sava Centar. Informer reports that he gave the statements to Blic.

Dario is Marinko Rokvic’s son from outside his marriage. Nikola visited him in Canada recently and had earlier congratulated him publicly on his birthday.

How did Nikola find out about Dario?

The singer says he learned about his brother as a boy, and that Dario had known about them his whole life. “I don’t know how old I was, maybe 12, 13 when I found out about Dario,” Nikola said.

Of their first meeting he says: “When we met, when he came, that was when it started, first as a friendship, and then we grew so fond of each other that it is now an unbreakable love.”

He describes the role of his mother, Slavica, this way: “I am grateful to my mother here, who really played a big part and who accepted all of it, and simply, a child is a child.” Informer adds that Slavica initiated the meetings, which Nikola does not mention in his own words.

”They tell me he’s your half-brother, no, we are brothers”

Nikola does not accept the word “half-brother.” This is how he answered when asked about Dario:

Dario is our great love and our brother whom we love endlessly. He is such a wonderful and good man, and he looks so big, you know. When we were in Canada recently, my musicians, when they saw him, you get scared by how big he looks, and then when you meet him, from the very first word, he is such a gentle and good man, and we are truly happy and grateful to have such a brother, to have our blood, and that with our parents’ help we managed to get rid of all those clichés that might have taken us in some other direction, and we love each other very much.

In Canada he also met Dario’s mother. “She is a wonderful woman who, with her own strength, raised her son so well,” the singer said, then added: “They tell me he’s your half-brother, no, we are brothers.”

A year of fighting illness

Marinko Rokvic fought cancer for about a year. Nikola says the family knew from the start what the diagnosis was and that nothing could be done. “We really fought heroically for a year, a whole year, and we never gave up,” he said.

He also spoke about the illness from the standpoint of faith, which he calls his greatest support:

Illness can be a blessing for someone, to have some time given to you in which you can do certain things and see them from another angle. Because when we are healthy, when we are full of strength, we are mighty, and then we do not see some things, we do some things that are perhaps not so good for the salvation of our souls.

He says he also finds peace in monasteries and on Mount Athos, where conversations with monks fill him with “good energy.”

The concert at Sava Centar

Nikola is preparing for his November 13 performance at Sava Centar. His core band will be on stage along with additional musicians, 12 to 13 people in total. The program will include a special block of Marinko’s songs. “And we are preparing something else, so I can’t wait to step out in front of the audience,” he said.

The concert was preceded by a new song, “Opet pijan” (“Drunk Again”). The lyrics and music are by Dragan Brajovic Braja, and the arrangement is by Dejan Abadic.

He also admitted that he dreamed about his concert for the first time: “Last night I dreamed about my concert for the first time.” He has been singing for more than twenty years, and says he is used to small technical problems too.

Family and his wife Bojana

Nikola and his wife Bojana have three children. The singer says he is grateful that Bojana, a former model who dreamed of Hollywood, chose family. Asked whether she reproaches him for giving up Hollywood because of him, he answered: “We got past that, those small things, but when you see, thank God we have healthy children, all three of them, then everything else doesn’t have to be.”