Watch a video, listen to a snippet, read some press, or see Mia live:

News

• Mia’s new CD Love You Madly is out now, more details soon on this website, more info below
  
• Mia will be performing with a large group at the Jazz Festival Ljubljana in July, Europe’s oldest jazz festival. More details soon...
  
• Mia on Facebook, MySpace
• Mia will be singing one song by Bob Dylan on a compilation of Slovene singers sponsored by the American Embassy in Ljubljana. Details soon...
• Two songs from Mia's CD  "Nevidni orkester - Invisible Orchestra" were released on the German record label Meyer Records on the compilation "Various Artists - Meyer Records Volume 2", both as a CD and as a Vinyl LP.
• Mia will be appeared in a film documentary about her life, music and new CD "Nevidni orkester".
  
• 100 new photos have been added to Mia's photo gallery. See them here.

Mia Žnidarič - short bio

Mia Žnidarič, the “First Lady” of Slovene jazz has arrived on the scene with her 12th CD: Love You Madly. Mia's voice is magical. Her love for Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald and Nancy Wilson shines through with every breath. Her music spans the spectrum from big band to an intimate smaller group and she is currently on tour with American piano player Steve Klink's trio. Her new CD presents a fresh take on grooving, swinging jazz with a new twist: the traditional folk music and poetry of her homeland.

Mia is an interesting mix of country girl and jazz traditionalist and she became a phenomenon when her Slovene language recording of Nat King Cole’s "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" became a number one hit and presented listeners in the ex-Yugoslav republic acoustic, swinging jazz from a new perspective. It’s hard to imagine a traditional jazz standard getting pop radio airplay next to Michael Jackson and Madonna in the 90’s, but that’s what happened. Slovenia was suddenly on fire for this little girl from the country. Her voice bewitched them on the radio and they soon realized she had a personality to match.

Love You Madly

Together with both a smaller combo as well as the entire Big Band RTV Slovenia (conducted by Tadej Tomšič), Mia shows off her huge repertoire which spans the gamut from Jazz Standards to Slovene poetry to Slovene folk songs, and her voice floats effortlessly over these diverse styles. You have to be a little mad to make a CD like this! A word about the language: Mia usually performs in both English and her native tongue. To non-speakers, the Slovene text sounds beautifully foreign to our ears and gives Mia’s voice an even deeper dimension: a new set of sounds takes our experience of music and jazz to another level.

Mia's voice is magical. Teasing, inviting, brooding, playful, swinging, her voice sparkles over the band and infects the listener with a panorama of emotions: from light whimsy to dark melancholy to the joyous euphoria of life.

Mia Žnidarič - full bio

Sometimes nice things come from the most unlikely places. Who would have imagined that in a remote river valley of the south Carinthian Alps, a small, young farm girl with a big beautiful voice would grow up loving and listening to jazz. And that despite many hardships (including the then Yugoslav regime) she could follow her heart and muster the willpower to completely dedicate herself to the jazz music she loved. And further, that she would proceed to explode upon the national music scene in the 90's, with her distinct blend of jazz and folk music, her shining personality - and touch everyone, even those who had never even heard of jazz.

Mia Žnidarič has released over 10 CDs under her name, has appeared in thousands of magazines, hundreds of radio and television shows and a movie soundtrack. Her passionate singing, full of delicacy, sweetness and emotion, has enchanted listeners everywhere, whether she is swinging like Ella or performing in her native language, Slovene.
How is it that someone who grew up in a tiny corner of the Alps possesses such a knowledge of the jazz vocal tradition, and performs with so much power and passion?

Mia is an interesting mix of country girl and jazz traditionalist.  Growing up on a farm she heard her first jazz recording, Billy Holiday’s Lady Sings the Blues, when she was fourteen.  What followed was a love and total dedication to jazz that has propelled her throughout her entire life.  After a few years gigging around Maribor (Marburg) with different bands, word got out about Mia, and soon jazz musicians all over Slovenia had heard about the country girl who could swing.  Her first big break came by way of famous composer Jože Prevšek, who wrote three big band arrangements for her and presented an opportunity for her to perform with Slovenia’s Radio Big Band.  So Mia quit her day job as a menial factory laborer, moved to the capital city, Ljubljana, and took it by storm.  She has never looked back.

Mia became a phenomenon in Slovenia.  Her Slovene language recording of Nat King Cole’s "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" became a number one hit and presented listeners in the ex-Yugoslav republic acoustic, swinging jazz with a fresh twist.  It’s hard to imagine a traditional jazz standard getting pop radio airplay next to Michael Jackson and Madonna in the 90’s, but that’s what happened.  Slovenia was suddenly on fire for this little girl from the country.  Her voice bewitched them on the radio and they soon realized she had a personality to match.   Mia was propelled overnight to a kind of cult fame, appearing on television talk shows and occupying the pages of yellow magazines.  More opportunities followed:  her first CD  (It’s Just Luck, a great, swinging recording featuring pianist Peter Mihelič), a jazz soundtrack to a movie, more television broadcasts and concerts all over the country.

At this point Mia faced a choice.  Her love of jazz and her dedication to it had opened many doors for her and made her a star.  Managers and promoters were begging her to "widen" her musical spectrum and move in a more pop direction.  However, Mia felt that to do this would be to betray her most basic foundation:  the rhythm, the melodies, the feeling of jazz.

Around this time Mia met American piano player Steve Klink and together with his trio they produced two records in English: Hold My Hand (awarded three Grammies in Slovenia: Best Jazz Record, Best Jazz Vocals, Best Production) and I Wish I Knew How...(awarded one Grammy in Slovenia:  Best Jazz Record).  They found that in addition to jazz they had another music in common:  a love of the American Folk tradition.  Through the giving of generous sponsors, Mia was able to produce her next CD on the highest level.  On a bed of strings, brass, choirs and guitars (all recorded live), the music of Steve was matched with lyrics by poet Feri Lainšček.  Feri is a celebrated writer from the easternmost part of Slovenia, on the border with Hungary, an area called Prekmurje; he speaks Slovene, Hungarian and Serbo-Croatian.  Steve comes from Iowa, in the Midwest of America, and he speaks English and German. At first people were skeptical how Feri’s texts and Steve’s music would mix: the two could barely talk to each other.  But the end result turned out to be a delicious collaboration.  The images of nature from the flatlands of Feri’s Pregmurje somehow struck a chord with Steve’s musical idea of America’s heartland.  The resulting songs gave a feeling of open spaces, telling tales of longing, pain and melancholy - perfect stories for Mia’s emotional voice to soar and take flight.  Mia’s hard work paid off:  "Dan je drugačen" became a number one single on hit radio and the CD Pobarvanka was awarded a Grammy in Slovenia for Best Jazz Record.

At the turn of the millennium Mia became interested in the folk songs of her native country, which led to an opportunity to record with the Symphonic Orchestra of Slovenia, under the guidance of the great Slovene composer Janez Gregorc. In addition she contributed to two "tribute" albums dedicated to two of the most influential singer-songwriters of the twentieth century: Randy Newman (the CD: Feels Like Home) and Joni Mitchell (the CD: Places to come from, Places to go). And in 2004, amidst much touring, Mia was offered the opportunity to do a project that again exceeded all expectations. She reached back to her jazz roots and produced Preblizu, predalec - Too Close for Comfort, a CD of superb quality and taste, a culmination of her life in jazz, expressed through a diverse repertoire and stunning arrangements and conducted by Milko Lazar.

And now, after more years of hard work, Mia Žnidarič has came out in 2008 with her 11th project, a CD called Nevidni orkester - Invisible Orchestra and now in 2011 with Love You Madly. Recorded both in English and her native tongue, on Nevidni orkester Mia wanted to get back to a smaller jazz combo, this time featuring the Steve Klink Trio and many guests including saxophonist Tadej Tomšič, trumpeter David Jarh and guitarist Primož Grašič.

On Mia’s latest project Love You Madly together with Big Band RTV Slovenia, Mia shows off her huge repertoire which spans the gamut from Jazz Standards to Slovene poetry to Slovene folk songs, and her voice floats effortlessly over these diverse styles. You have to be a little mad to make a CD like this! The critics have been raving: "... the most incredible Slovene jazz singer of all time!" "The first lady of Slovene vocal jazz!" "Mia Žnidarič triumphs with her plain, child-like simplicity!" Recorded in High-Definition Audio, this Audiophile recording has set new standards in Slovenia for quality acoustic jazz, and the music has been used to make a new National Television documentary about Mia's life.

Mia, the country girl with the beautiful voice, who grew up in the middle of nowhere, is older now. She looks back over her twenty-year career (she is 40 now) and has a lot of stories to tell. She has lived through flashes of fame and stuck to what she believes in. It is not necessarily easy to make a jazz career in a small country like Slovenia. But on stage, in front of European audiences, the shy farm girl still peaks through, before she explodes in a cascade of jazz.

A word about the language: Mia usually performs in both English and her native tongue. To non-speakers, the Slovene text sounds beautifully foreign to our ears and gives Mia’s voice an even deeper dimension:  a new set of sounds takes our experience of music and jazz to another level. The Slovenia of today has changed a lot since the 80's and 90's. Those who have been there recently are likely to have been enchanted by the mystical mountains and forests, the huge caves and the Adriatic Sea. Many unbelievable gifts of nature are packed into a very small space called Slovenia. Its recent admission to the European Union has meant that half of its borders are now free.

Mia's voice is magical.  Her love for Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald and Nancy Wilson shines through with every breath. Teasing, inviting, brooding, playful, swinging, her voice sparkles over the band and infects the listener with a panorama of emotions: from light whimsy to dark melancholy to the joyous euphoria of life.