At the age of two and a half, Derenda's parents became aware of her singing talent. She always loved to sing and perform in front of an audience. Music was an integral part of her childhood. She sang in choruses, performed as a soloist, attended music school, and learned to play the accordion. Shortly before finishing primary school, Nuša joined a band of young musicians. Although Derenda originally wanted to become a preschool teacher and work part-time in a nursery school for a year, she continued to sing with the band and traveled throughout Europe. In 1990, her band broke up and Nuša, along with her partner Frenk, established a new group. By that time they had already become professional and toured Yugoslavia, Germany, and Switzerland, and were invited to the US three times. Seven years of success and hard work followed, as their act performed up to 150 concerts in a single year. Since 1998, Derenda has mostly been working with a group called Happy Hour, with whom she records music in the studio and performs live.
Awards
In 1995, Frenk and Nuša Derenda married and started thinking about permanently settling in Slovenia. She had dreamt about making an album for some time. In 1999, she fulfilled this ambition with the CD Vzemi me veter : a song with the same title as the CD was written by her friend, Majda Arh. This song earned Nuša first place in the Slovene TV contest Orion. At the Slovene Pop Contest 1999 Nuša received the award for best singer, and at the MMS festival the second prize from the audience with the song "Boginja". The same team of songwriter helped her win the Orion 2000 contest with the song "Čez dvajset let". This group of songwriters also accompanied her to the festival MMS 2000. Nuša Derenda sang the song "Ne kliči me" and won the audience prize for the second time. In November 2000, the first HIT Festival was held, and Nuša Derenda won with the song "Ni mi žal". In December the same year she issued a CD with the same title.
Winning the EMA 2001 attracted greater media attention and popularity. She participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 in Copenhagen with the song "Energy", where she finished seventh, achieving the best result for Slovenia.
Points
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More Awards
In 2001, thanks to her Eurovision performance, she attended the International Golden Stag Festival in Braşov, Romania. There, she won a special prize from the Ministry of Culture for the best interpretation of a Romanian-language song. Nuša also visited Germany for the Eurosong Fan Club Party in Cologne, where she also held a solo concert. At the end of October 2001, she was invited to Croatia to Zadarfest. There she was awarded second place by the professional jury, and the prize for the best lyrics. That same year 2001 also brought her Victor of Popularity in the music category, which is presented every year by the magazine Stop: the winner is selected by its readers. Also that year, she received the Zlati petelin award for the song "Ni mi žal". Nuša became one of the candidates for Slovene Woman of the Year 2001. 2002 was marked by victory at Slovenska popevka with the song "Pesek v oči". At the beginning of December 2002, she released her third CD with the title Na štiri oči. In 2003, Nuša again attended the HIT Festival – the third in succession – and won with the song "V ogenj zdaj obleci me". The song won the prize from professional jury for the best music and lyrics. Her Greatest Hits Collection 1998–2003 was released in April 2004. The CD contains most of the popular songs from the beginning of her career to her latest tracks to date of release. On September 5 that year, she hosted Slovenska popevka 2004 at Križanke in Ljubljana and successfully passed the challenge of TV host.
From September 6 to 12, 2004, she participated in the 3rd Megahit-International Mediterranean Song Contest at the Fethiye tourist centre in southern Turkey. The Mediterranean Song Contest is an international music festival, founded by the END PRODUCTION company, led by Serhat Hacipasalioglu. The festival promotes popular music of Mediterranean countries. Its motto is "Music Unites Peace and Friendship". With 91 points, Nuša won a perfect third place with the song "Devil" at the award ceremony in 2002.
