Mojmir Sepe

Biography
Mojmir Sepe studied the trumpet and the piano at the Music Academy in Ljubljana before he joined the Radio Ljubljana Dance Orchestra as a trumpeter in 1950. From an early age onwards, Sepe had developed a penchant for jazz music, resulting in the formation of one of the first jazz ensembles of the former Yugoslavia, the Mojmir Sepe Band, in 1956. From the 1960s onwards, he composed numerous pop songs, many of them for the Slovenska Popevka (Slovenian Pop) Festival, including ‘Zemlja pleše (for Marjana Deržaj, 1962), ‘Zakaj?’ (for Lado Leskovar, 1973), and ‘Pismo za Mary Brown’ (for his wife Majda Sepe, 1976). Sepe composed instrumental orchestral pieces as well as the music to children’s rhymes, theatre performances, and films. He was awarded with several prizes: the Jezek Award for achievement in radio and television art (1996), the Viktor Media Award for lifetime achievement (1997), and the Kozima Award for lifetime achievement in music (upon his 80th birthday, in 2010).

Mojmir Sepe participated in the Eurovision Song Contest on four occasions. In 1966, he composed and conducted ‘Brez besed’, the song with which Berta Ambroz represented Yugoslavia in Luxembourg. Four years later, in 1970, he returned to the contest as the composer and conductor of the Yugoslav entry, ‘Pridi, dala ti bom cvet’, which was performed by Eva Sršen in the festival held in Amsterdam. Both songs had lyrics in Slovene. After an absence of 27 years, Sepe returned to the contest as the conductor of the stylish Slovenian entry of 1997, ‘Zbudi se’ by Tanja Ribič; one year later, in the last contest so far with an orchestra present, he was present once again to conduct the Slovene entry, ‘Naj bogovi slišijo’ – however, this time, it was decided upon during the Eurovision week that nothing of the music of that song would be played live, because the composers, on second thoughts, preferred the studio recording. Nevertheless, Sepe took the customary conductor bow and indicated the start of the backing tape to the group of musicians surrounding singer Vili Resnik.

In due course, a more extensive biography of Mojmir Sepe will be published on this website