Zdenko Runjić

Zdenko Runjić was a Croatian songwriter. His career spanned decades in the former Yugoslavia and Croatia.

Biography

Runjić was born on 26 October 1942 in the village of Garčin near Slavonski Brod. Many of his songs were inspired by the folk traditions of Dalmatia. The songs became classics and Runjić helped the careers of many notable Croatian musicians such as Oliver Dragojević, Doris Dragović and Meri Cetinić. He was especially successful at the Split Music Festival. He wrote almost 700 songs which sold several million copies in both albums and singles.More than 200 songs were written for Dragojević alone. He was also a successful businessman and music producer. He owned a record company called Skalinada.
In 1993, following a dispute with the Split Music Festival organisers, he founded the rival music festival called Melodije Hrvatskog Jadrana, which is ongoing as of 2025.On 27 October 2004, Runjić died in Krapinske Toplice from a stroke while recovering from a heart attack.