The Croatian Spring (Croatian: Hrvatsko proljeće, also called masovni pokret or MASPOK, for "mass movement") was a political movement from the early 1970s that called for greater rights for Croatia (then part of Yugoslavia) as well as democratic and economic reforms.

The movement was set in motion when a group of influential Croatian poets and linguists published a Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Standard Language in 1967. After 1968 the patriotic goals of that document morphed into a generic Croatian movement for more rights for Croatia which received grassroots support, especially amongst many student organizations which actively started to voice their support for the cause.

Among the main demands were greater civil rights for Croatian citizens; the right to take pride in one's history was prominently featured. This irritated Tito's communist government which, though not banning nationalist feelings, did not parade them around, as memories of the atrocities committed by Croatian fascists during the Second World War were still fresh.

Vice Vukov (August 3, 1936, Šibenik – September 24, 2008, Zagreb) was a Croatian singer and politician.

During the 1960s, Vukov was one of the most popular singers in Yugoslavia, appearing at the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 with the song "Brodovi" and at the Eurovision Song Contest 1965 with the song "Čežnja".

In the aftermath of the Croatian Spring movement, he was branded a Croatian nationalist by Yugoslav authorities and had his apartment searched by the police during the 1972 wave of arrests of Croatian Spring leaders. Vukov was on an Australian tour at that time. His wife warned him not to return because he could be arrested too, so instead he went to live in France, returning to Yugoslavia in 1976. By that time, the authorities had lost interest in his case, but his singing career was effectively over; he was blacklisted, barred from performing publicly and all his records were pulled out of stores.

In 1989 an album of his new songs, albeit without his name on the cover, reappeared in Croatian music stores, signalling the political change. Soon after, Vukov made a public comeback with a series of 14 sold-out concerts at Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall.