Oliver Mandić

Oliver Mandić (Serbian Cyrillic: Оливер Мандић; born July 13, 1953 in Titovo Užice, Serbia, Yugoslavia) is a Serbian and Yugoslav rock musician, composer, and producer.

Early life

Musically involved from a young age, Mandić first started playing the accordion before taking up the piano. In his early youth, Mandić's family moved to the capital Belgrade where he pursued a career of a pianist after getting accepted at highly reputable Kornelije Stanković musical high school. However, despite a lot of promise, he left school in 1969 to try to branch out into pop music.

Early career

During the early 1970s, Mandić performed in various Belgrade bands as the keyboardist, and was described as "the wunderkind of Belgrade [rock] scene".

Towards the end of 1971, he formed the jazz-rock band Oliver, which consisted of Mandić, members of the progressive rock band Pop Mašina and singer Dušan Prelević. Functioning as a supergroup of sorts, the band had only one live appearance, on 2 January 1972, at a concert in Belgrade's Hala sportova.