Dražen Ričl

Who was Dražen Ričl?

Dražen Ričl was a Yugoslav rock musician, best known as the first lead vocalist of popular Sarajevo-based rock band Crvena jabuka.

Ričl was born to father Ferdinand and mother Elvira in Sarajevo. He grew up in the city's Koševo neighborhood where he was known by nicknames Para and Zijo. Upon finishing musical high school, he started studying journalism at the University of Sarajevo, where he met future fellow musician Branko Đurić. Soon, Zijo left the studies to start playing his first band Ozbiljno pitanje. The band also featured Zlatko Arslanagić, future co-founder of Crvena Jabuka. Soon afterwards, Ričl joins one of the greatest attractions of the New Primitives movement, Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors and, meanwhile, acts as one of the leading actors in the first season of the popular absurd comedy TV series Top lista nadrealista, which was also created as a part of the New Primitives movement.

At the beginning of 1985, Ričl leaves Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors to join forces with Arslanagić once again, this time forming Crvena jabuka. Aljoša Buha, Dražen Žerić Žera and Darko Jelčić Cunja have all joined the band in the next several months and they started rehearsing in the attic of Arslanagić's house. In 1986, the band released its self-titled first album, that quickly gained immense popularity. Ričl and Arslanagić, as the leading authors, have combined the rudeness and simplicity of New primitivism with the romantic themes, characteristic of the bands they have considered their predecessors, such as The Beatles and Indexi.