Stoja Novaković

Stoja Novaković (; born 4 June 1972), known mononymously as Stoja , is a Serbian hardcore-folk singer. Recognised as one of the most popular turbo-folk performers, Stoja is noted for her strong deep voice and often eccentric appearances.

She released her first album, Kako je meni sada, in Lazarević Production in 1998. Later, she released her albums in the record label Grand Production. Within a short time, Stoja became one of the most popular singers in the Balkans. She is currently signed to BN Music, and has recently released songs with IDJ and Balkan Star too.

Early life

Novaković was born on 4 June 1972 in the village of Perlez, in the Zrenjanin, Vojvodina municipality in northern Serbia. Her father Milan was born in Pukiš, a village in the Lopare municipality in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, and her mother Katica was from Vojvodina. Stoja has a younger brother Živko. She was raised in Perlez, where she lived until the age of 25. When describing her childhood, Stoja said: "We had a hard life, we were poor. I was an energetic girl and caused problems for my parents. I was drawn to do everything I shouldn't.". According to Stoja, her father had a nice voice and he often sang sevdalinke, and she often listened to him. As a young girl she liked Marina Perazić, Bajaga i instruktori, Bijelo Dugme and Madonna.

She is said to have received her uncommon and strong voice from her father, Milan, but her talent was discovered by her teacher Sida. Sida, who led the second class, suggested that Stoja should go to a singing competition that was organized for students from the first to fourth grade, as well as to be the first voice of the choir. The competition went well, she won first place, and lived up to teacher Sida's expectations. According to her, she started singing accidentally. She went to the local neighbourhood Slava where she sang for the first time. She quotes from that night: "Tips were flying in all directions, everyone was on tables and chairs. When we finished, the head of the orchestra told me not to go anywhere until we split the tip because I deserved it. My purse was full of money, I couldn't close it.". That first album became a big success. Later that year, she signed with the label Grand Production, owned by Lepa Brena and Saša Popović, and released her second album, Ćiki, ćiki in 1999. The album featured multiple hit songs, the biggest being "Ćiki, ćiki". The title song "Ćiki, ćiki" and the track "Neću da ostarim" (I'm Not Going to Get Old) gained the greatest popularity. Television appearances followed, which she admits she was not fond of, but interest in her was growing. Despite the stormy year on the political and social front, Stoja performed throughout Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. that is when many people in Bosnia and Herzegovina started to listen Stoja, and since then she has been notably popular in this country; Stoja herself uploaded the mentioned insert from the series on her official YouTube channel.

She released her next, fifth studio album in 2003 under the name Zakletva (Oath). And then she treated the audience with eight new songs, among which "Živeo" (Live long), "Da zavolim ludo" (To Fall Madly in Love), "Samo idi" (Just Go) and others stood out.

Two years later, in 2006 she released her seventh studio album under the title (Bullet). There were eight new songs on it, including a duet with Šako Polumenta called "Gde god pođem tebi idem" (Wherever I Go, I Go Towards You), "Ne slušaj vesti" (Don't Listen to The News) and one of her most acclaimed songs in her career "Nešto mi govori" (Something Is Telling to Me). The audio of that song has 67.7 million views on her YouTube channel . Both the title song and the duet song were well received by the audience. That year, Stoja was declared the best folk singer in BiH, and her song "Metak" won the "Belgrade Winner" award.

Her tenth studio album entitled Nije da nije (It's Not That It's Not) was released on 6 May 2013 by the Bosnia-based label BN Music, marking the first time in 15 years that Stoja has released an album with a production company other than Grand Production.

Following the release of Nije da nije, Stoja began releasing non-album singles including "Bela ciganka", "Ola ola", "Takvog dečka hoću ja", "Lila lila", and "Ti brate imaš sve". Her song "Bela ciganka" (White Gypsy) which was published on her YouTube channel, became an international success with over 100 million views as of 2024, 2025 and 2026, making it one of the most viewed videos at the Balkans.

Album was released in 2015; it includes old hits, as well as new such as "Kao ovde nigde nije" (It's Nowhere Like Here) — first song, displayed at cover. Two singles were released the next year: "Ponovo" (Again) and "Ko preživi neka priča" (Let Talk A One Who Survives). BN Music published her single "Lila, lila" in February 2015. Stoja hired a proven good team of collaborators for this song as well, so success was not lacking. The track has so far been viewed more than 20 million times on YouTube . In October of the same year, she presented the single "Kao ovde nigde nije", which became one of the most requested songs at performances abroad. Tours all over Europe followed, and she organized a big concert for her listeners in Sofia, Bulgaria, which was attended by more than 18,000 people. In April 2017, with young singers Relja Popović and Coby, they released the song "Samo jako" (Just Go Hard) which samples her song from 2000 "Samo" from her album Samo. In one show, she admitted that this type of music was not close to her, but she decided to support her dear colleagues. The collaboration was immediate success, and the song gained 77 million views on YouTube. In May 2018, Coby and Stoja released the duet "Čista hemija" (Pure Chemistry), that's lyrics were written by Petar Lugonja and Vukašin Jasnić, and music and arrangement by Veljković. The song divided Stoja's fans into those who like her and those who think she should return to the music she did a few years ago. "Čista hemija" (music video in which she is dressed like Gaddafi; ft Coby) in 2018, "Ko bi rekao" (Who Would Say; ft Kija Kockar) in 2018, "Idi mami pa se žali" (Go to Your Mom And Then Regret) in 2019, "Žena sa Balkana" (A Woman from The Balkans; ft Mimi Mercedez) in 2019, "Svet se vrti oko nas" (World Is Spinning Around Us; ft Mimi Mercedez) in 2019, "Taki taki" in 2019, "Neka pati" (Let Him Suffer; ft Milan) in 2019 and "Aj, chiki, chiki" (ft Ludi Srbi) in 2019. Geto Gerila made a remix of her song "Džek" (Naj, naj album, 2009) entitled "Ostani tu" and published on 27 October 2019. The last release in 2019 was Geto Gerila remix of Stoja's hit "Ćiki, ćiki" (same-named album, 1999) entitled "Aj, chiki, chiki" and published on 20 December. In June 2021 she released song "Hera" with Balkan Star label.

Stoja released "Da li ona zna" (Does She Know) on her YouTube channel in June 2023.

Her latest release is a song "Animal", that is a duet with ; it was published in December 2025.

Stoja has been working with her long-time friend and lyricist Stevan Simeunović who is author of almost all her songs since her career has started.

Personal life Relationships Novaković was first married at age 16, became a mother at 17 and was widowed at 19 when her first husband lost his life in a 1991 car crash, ending their three-year marriage. When talking about her husband, she said: "I knew my first husband from the village. He was from a rich farming family and much older than me. One day he came to my father to propose me. Dad told him that it will be as I decide. I was 16 years old and I got married literally right out of school. After a few months, I became pregnant and it was a real shock for my parents. It wasn't a problem for me. I went to school pregnant and graduated. My first husband was attentive to me and I had a carefree life. He looked after our son and me and did not allow anything to disturb us. Whenever I wanted to do something, he would tell me that there was no need because he had enough money for everything.". She became a grandmother at age 33 when her son Milan's first child was born.

Since 2007, she has lived in Belgrade, Novaković married architect Igor Jovanović on 1 November 2009, after being in a relationship for five years. Their relationship has been on-again-off-again, with the couple constantly breaking up and getting back together. In a March 2014 interview, Novaković revealed that she once attempted suicide by driving her car into a wall to keep their marriage from dissipating.

Family On 4 October 2011, Stoja found her mother Katica, who had heart problems and diabetes, dead in bed after being suspicious when Katica did not emerge from her bedroom that morning.

Stoja survived a car accident on 28 May 2012 when her car was totaled after being hit by a truck. She escaped with a minor injury to the forehead.

Stoja has said that her favorite singer is Šemsa Suljaković and she has frequently covered Suljaković's songs at concerts and television appearances, and was even interviewed with her in June 2012.

Cosmetic surgeries Stoja is known for numerous cosmetic procedures and exceptional figure, which has accompanied her since the beginning of her career. Stoja is one of the first people from Serbia's showbusiness world to admit that she went to Turkey for cosmetic surgery and that it cost a lot (the figure of over 100,000€ is also mentioned). The surgeries were mostly corrective and aimed at getting a more beautiful figure, because Stoja has been struggling with "extra pounds" since the beginning of her career. "I know that! When I change, I change everything! This summer I promised to lose weight and do something new. I tried and it worked, I'm really happy. I spent 10 days and two months recovering in Turkey. It still hurts, I was immobile for 3–4 days", she said and added: "I was in an artificial coma for nine and a half hours. I would not like to talk about the figure, but it is somewhere around 100,000€. When you say Turkey, everyone knows that it is not very cheap and easy, but I am very satisfied", concluded Stoja for Pink.rs. After these corrections, Stoja specially secured one part of her body: "I secured my butt like J.Lo. It's not exactly a million like her, because we live in Serbia, but in accordance with our financial possibilities", the folk singer pointed out.

Discography

Studio albums Kako je meni sada (1998) Ćiki, ćiki (1999) Samo (2000) Evropa (2001) Zakletva (2003) Starija (2004) (2006) "Ne slušaj vesti" "Nešto mi govori" "Gde god pođem tebi idem" "Neću proći jeftino" "Metak" "Sve sam živo pokvarila" "Leti, leti" "Ako smeta tvojoj sreći" (2008) "Baš, baš" "Do gole kože" "Idi" "Kučka" "Može viski" "Pogrešna" "Potopiću ovaj splav" "Stena" "Muzika" Naj, naj (2009) Nije da nije (2013) (2015) "Kao ovde nigde nije" "Bela ciganka" "Lila lila" "Takvog dečka hoću ja" "Ola, ola" "Robija" "Nije da nije" "Hoću pesmu, hoću lom" "Zgazi, ubi" "Kakva sam takva sam" "Pare, pare"

Music videos Title Year Directed by Starija 2004 Dejan Milićević Metak 2006 Dejan Milićević Ja te Mićo ne volim 2008 Do gole kože 2008 Kučka 2008 Pogrešna 2009 Dejan Milićević Da li si za seks 2009 Kakva sam, takva sam 2010 Živi i uživaj 2010 Revolucija 2010 Goran Šljivić Pare, pare 2012 Ti brate imaš sve 2015 Darko Stanković Bomba 2017 Goran Šljivić Samo jako 2017 Andrej Ilić, Ne treba mi život 2018 Čista hemija 2018 Leonard Firstner Ko bi rekao 2018 Idi mami pa se žali 2019 Džimi Džu Žena sa Balkana 2019 Džimi Džu Svet se vrti oko nas 2019 Taki taki 2019 Neka pati 2019 Ljuba Radojević Ostani tu 2019 Aj, chiki, chiki 2019 Lice 2020 Hera 2021 Marko Panić Jovo nanovo 2022 Vladimir Miladinović Milioner 2023 Da li ona zna 2023 Jasmin Toni Lehman Institucija 2025 Animal 2025 Ognjen Opačić,

Compilations Viki, Dara, Seka & Stoja — 4 dame (2004) Stoja & Sejo Kalač (2005) The Best of Stoja (2007) Kao ovde nigde nije! / Bela ciganka (2015)

Live Stoja (1999) Armeec live (2016)

Other Što me tražiš sada (1998) Šemsa & Stoja (2000) Zašto sam ti verovao (2003) Meni se ne spava (2007) Ponovo (2016) Ko preživi neka priča (2016)