Hiljson Mandela
Ivan Hilje, better known under his stage name Hiljson Mandela, is a Croatian rapper and singer-songwriter, and also a member of a hip hop trio KUKU$.
He is the son of Croatian opera singer Diana Hilje and showed his interest in music at an early age. In 2008, aged 16, he founded an alternative-rock band called Prazna Lepinja, sang and played saxophone. In 2013, the band released their first studio album Danasutra.
Alongside his two friends from childhood – Ivan Godina, Mislav Kljenak and three others, who later left – he founded the trap-based band KUKU$, which made them pioneers of that genre in Croatia.
In May 2022, he released his first solo studio album – Mandela Effect, which soon gained popularity in Croatia and regionally, especially because of viral songs such as "Cura S Kvarta" , "Mbappé", "McLaren", "Neće K***c", "Lova" and others.
He won his first Cesarica award for collaboration with Croatian singer Zsa Zsa for their single "Ova Ljubav" for 2020. In 2022, he got a nomination for collaboration with Miach on her single "NLO", which became his second nomination for that award. In February 2023, he got the prize Zlatni Studio as "one of the best new names on the Croatian music scene".