Novi Bečej (Serbian Cyrillic: Нови Бечеј), is a town and municipality in Central Banat District of Vojvodina, Serbia. The town has a population of 13,123, while Novi Bečej municipality has 23,847 inhabitants.
Its name means "new Bečej". In the past it was known simply as "Bečej", while the current town of Bečej, across the river Tisa, was in the past known as "Stari Bečej" ("old Bečej") and today is known as "Bečej".
In Serbian, the town is known as Novi Bečej (Нови Бечеј), in Hungarian as Törökbecse, in Croatian as Novi Bečej, and in German as Neu-Betsche.
Serbian and Hungarian language are officially used by municipal authorities.
12th century BC ornitho-morphic pendants were found in the town. The Dacians inhabited the region before the Roman conquest in the 2nd–1st century BC.
The town was first mentioned in 1091 during the Hungarian Kingdom. In the 15th century, it was a possession of the Serbian despot Đurađ Branković. During the Ottoman rule (in 1660/6), it was populated by ethnic Serbs. Ottomans managed her as "Beçe" between 1552–1718. Until 1918 its part of the Hungarian Kingdom, after it is part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and subsequent South Slavic states except German occupation between 1941–1944.
Fahreta Jahić- Živojinović (born 20 October 1960) is a Bosnian pop-folk and pop singer, South Slavs pop star and pop icon and showbiz manager, better known by her stage name Lepa Brena.
Lepa Brena was born as Fahreta Jahić to a Bosniak family in Tuzla in 1960, but grew up in Brčko. She was the third-born child of Abid Jahić (1928-2010) and Ifeta Jahić. She has a sister Faketa and an older brother named Faruk.
In 1980, she started singing with the band Slatki Greh. She subsequently moved to Novi Sad and then to Belgrade. Brena started to sing in hotel TURIST in Backa Palanka. She released her first album Čačak, Čačak in 1982. She is arguably the most popular singer of the former Yugoslavia, and a top-selling female record artist with more than thirty million records sold.
Beside her career as a singer, Lepa Brena is one of the founders of Grand Slam Group and Grand Production.
Fahreta's nickname "Brena" was given to her by her gym teacher. Later on, Serbian showman Minimax added "Lepa" (beautiful), creating the stage name "Lepa Brena".
Jelena Rozga (August 23, 1977 in Split, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia) is a Croatian pop singer. She became the lead singer of the popular band Magazin in 1996, when she was 18 years old. In 2006 she left Magazin and released her first solo album, Oprosti mala, on Croatia Records. In 2007 she won the Grand Prix at the Split Festival.
Parni valjak ("Steamroller") 1975 is a Croatian and former Yugoslav rock band. They were one of the top acts of the former Yugoslav Rock scene, and currently one of the top rock-and-roll bands in Croatia.
Parni valjak was founded in 1975. Unlike many rock bands that would come later, their style was becoming more mainstream, becoming closer to pop, especially compared with the bands like Prljavo kazalište or Film.
As years went by, their refusal to change style proved to be the important factor in the band's longevity. They kept a loyal following in 1980s and in 1990s, refusing to allow elements of folk and turbo folk music to become part of their repertoire. Because of that the band enjoys great respect among many Croatian rock critics, being seen as the embodiment of "true" rock and urban culture and many of their songs are considered evergreens in the former Yugoslavia like "Sve još miriše na nju", "Jesen u meni", "Ugasi me" and "Zastave". Parni valjak kept a relatively small but dedicated following for 30 years, and many people tend to gather at their concerts that feature energetic performances, despite advanced age of the band's members: Aki Rahimovski - vocals, Husein Hasanefendić-Hus - guitars, Marijan Brkić Brk - guitars, Berislav Blažević-Bero - keyboards, Zvonimir Bučević-Buč - bass guitar, Dražen Scholz-Šolc - drums, Tina Rupčić - vocal, Anita Mlinarić - sax.