Donna Ares

Azra Kolaković (pronounced [ǎzra kɔlǎkoʋitɕ]; 1 January 1977 – 2 October 2017), known professionally as Donna Ares (pronounced [dôna âres]), was a Bosnian singer-songwriter and musician. Dubbed the "Queen of the Balkan Party" (Kraljica Balkan žurke),^[1] she began her professional music career in 1998 with the release of her debut album Ti me više ne voliš. Over the course of her career, she released six studio albums and performed a headlining concert at the Zetra Olympic Hall in Sarajevo in 2015.^[2]

In addition to her music career, she wrote her own songs, composed music, played the piano, and directed her own music videos. She was also engaged in drawing, as well as graphic and web design. In October 2014, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer with metastases.^[3][4] In November 2015, she published a book titled Soba za nikoga, in which she wrote about her illness.^[5] She died on 2 October 2017 in her hometown of Bihać at the age of 40, following a three-year struggle with cancer.^[6]

Azra Kolaković was born in Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then part of the SFR Yugoslavia, to Bosniak parents, mother Ajka (née Čaušević), a piano teacher who works at a music school, and father Osman Kolaković (1944–2006), a pop-rock guitarist. She has a younger sister, Alma Tatlić (née Kolaković).

She began engaging with music as a child. She played the piano and, already in her childhood, as an instrumentalist during her studies at the Music School, she achieved numerous successes and awards at competitions across the former Yugoslavia. As a fifteen-year-old in 1992, she became a member of the group Camino Verde, with which she performed until 1996. The Bosnian War interrupted her ambitions and dreams of becoming a pianist, and due to the impossibility of continuing her planned studies in Vienna, she completely abandoned classical music and replaced it with commercial pop music. She made her first public appearance under the stage name Donna Ares at Dora 1997, Croatia's selection for the Eurovision Song Contest thus beginning a highly successful musical career as a prominent and award-winning singer, composer, and songwriter.

Ares was in a long-term relationship with Džavid Ljubovci, a musician who played in her band and arranged her songs. The couple lived together in Bihać.^[7] Two months before her death, she posted a crossed-out photo of the couple on Instagram with the caption "It's over, and I'm not sorry", which was widely interpreted as the end of their nearly 20-year relationship.^[8]

Ares had been feeling fatigued and had lost a significant amount of weight several months before being hospitalized in October 2014. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer with metastases.

In 2016, she moved to Denmark in the hope of recovering and starting a completely different life away from the public eye.^[9] In April 2017, Danish doctors informed her that she had approximately six months to live.^[10] After that, Ares returned to her hometown of Bihać, where she spent the remainder of her life with her mother and closest family members.^[11]

She died on 2 October 2017 while in a coma.^[12] She was buried on 4 October 2017 at the Humci cemetery in Bihać, next to her father, Osman Kolaković, who had died in 2006.^[13]

Following her funeral, Ares's burial, which did not follow traditional religious customs, drew criticism from some social media users.^[14]

In February 2015, Ares founded the humanitarian organization Donna Ares Foundation with the aim of providing assistance to individuals suffering from cancer and other malignant diseases in Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[15] The foundation organized various activities, including charity dinners and the sale of handmade items, to raise funds for patients' treatment. All proceeds from a concert held at Sarajevo’s Zetra Olympic Hall on 16 April 2015 were donated to the foundation’s account.^[16] Due to personal reasons, Donna decided to discontinue the foundation in February 2016.^[17]

• Ti me više ne voliš (1998)
• Čuvaj se, dušo, ja sam tatin sin (2002)
• Jackpot (2004)
• Nemam razloga za strah (2006)
• Fantastična (2009)
• Povratka nema (2011)

• 1997: “Zadnja noć”
• 2012: "Nema više"
• 2013: “Ko je jači” (Guest appearance on Soda Band song)
• 2013: “Obala suza” (Guest appearance on Derviš Eljazović’s song)
• 2013: “Žena zmaj” (feat. MC Sjena)
• 2013: “Godina Nova, a pjesme stare”
• 2014: “Suze moje plaču za oboje”
• 2014: “Señorita” (Guest appearance on Ady Ljubovci's song feat. MC Sjena)
• 2015: “Kreni! (Maslačak)” (feat. MC Sjena)

• Live Mix I (Po želji!) (2000)
• Live Mix II (Sviraj nešto narodno) (2001)
• Live Mix III (2003)
• Donna Ares & Prijatelji (Live at Zetra, Sarajevo) (2015)

• Megamix (2003)
• Nemoj da pogađam (2003)
• Best of Donna Ares (To mi nije trebalo) (2006)
• Deset godina sa vama (Live) (2007)
• The Best of Donna Ares (Želim da te gledam) (2010)

• The Best of Donna Ares (1997-2006) (Video Collection) (2006)

• Ares, Donna (2015). Soba za nikoga. Buybook.

• Donna Ares discography at Discogs
• Donna Ares at IMDb
• Donna Ares on Facebook
• Donna Ares on Instagram