Vukašin Brajić (born February 9, 1984 in Sanski Most, Bosnia and Herzegovina) is a Bosnian Serb pop-rock singer who rose to fame after participating in the first season of the music show Fame Academy (Operacija Trijumf) 2008/2009, the show in which Vukašin won the second place. It was broadcast by six national television networks in five Balkan countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. He will represent Bosnia and Herzegovina at Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo, Norway.
Vukašin Brajić was born in Sanski Most, Bosnia and Hercegovina on February 9, 1984, as the eldest of three children of Simo and Dušanka. He has a younger brother and sister, Nenad and Nevena.
Vukašin’s interest in music started early, in the third grade, when he asked his parents to let him enroll in a music school, which was not possible in the time of war. In 1994, due the war, his family moved from Bosna and Hercegovina to Serbia, to Mali Požarevac in Sopot, where they spent one year before moving to Čačak, where the family Brajić lives today.
Vukašin finished both elementary and high school in Čačak. His music beginnings are also related to Čačak. Even though his parents could not afford his musical education, Vukašin studied by himself, learning from the books and Internet.That is how he acquired his keyboards and guitar skills. He got his first guitar from his uncle before he turned fifteen and then said to his family: "Someday, this guitar will feed all of you".
He also sang in the choir, danced in the dance studio "Luna" and was a member of a drama club. That is how he gained experience in public performances and contests. When he was 19 years old, he moved from Čačak to Negotin where he enrolled the Teacher Education Academy which provided him what he liked – scene movement, music and singing. Vukašin enjoyed working with children and he has been saying that the pupils are his audience while the classroom is his scene. Today, he is only a final paper away to earn his degree, which he postponed because of the developments in his music career. While in Negotin, he lived with a friend who'd taught him a lot and helped him perfect his guitar skills.
Vukašin’s Operacija Trijumf story began when his roommate from Negotin called and told him that the application process had begun, so his godfather Marko filled the application form. Vukašin, who was in Negotin at the time, dedicating himself to college, immediately started with preparations. He went back to Belgrade and spent all the money he earned from gigs on singing classes with Professor Tanja Andrejić, with whom he worked for three months. After passing the auditions, he did a few promotional concerts across Serbia during the summer with other Serbian contestants from the show.
After the OT, Vukašin became a member of "OT Bend" along with three more Operacija Trijumf participants (Nikola Paunović, Nikola Sarić and Đorđe Gogov).
On February 23, 2009, Vukašin, among the other members of "OT Bend" and Sonja Bakić, performed as an opening act to a world-famous music star James Blunt at his Belgrade concert. "OT Bend" entered the "Beovizija 2009", Serbian Song Contest for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "Blagoslov za Kraj", written by E.Owen, S. Vukomanovic and E. Botric.
On March 7, in the semi-finals, they won maximum 24 points and entered the finals as the 1st. Next day, in the finals, again they won maximum 12 points from the audience, with 28 521 votes of totally 53 550. That was still not enough for the victory, because this time, the jury gave them only 5 points, so they finished the contest as the 1st runner up. On April 19 and 20, 2009, Vukašin, alongside other Operacija Trijumf participants, held two concerts in Sava Centar in Belgrade in front of 10000 people. He performed "OT Bend" songs and several national and international hits. During the summer of 2009, first Operacija Trijumf contestants went on a Montenegro tour. High point of the tour was the concert in Podgorica in front of the full stadium called ("Stadion malih sportova").
At the summer music festival "Sunčane skale 2009" in Herceg Novi, on the first night called "Prince awards" ("Prinčeve nagrade"), OT Bend won the "breakthrough of the year" award. On July 12, 2009, in Belgrade Arena, OT Bend, alongside Ana Bebić, performed at the closing ceremony of the 25th Summer Universiade, which gathered 8200 participants from 145 countries in the capital city of Serbia. Former students of Operacija Trijumf also held several concerts in cities across Serbia. One of the most noticed was the one of OT Bend and Ana Bebić at the main city square of Užice, in front of around 10000 people. "Farewell concert of Operacija Trijumf" in Sava Centar, Belgrade, was left for the end of the year. That way, students had the opportunity to say goodbye to the group appearances under the name - Operacija Trijumf and marked the beginning of their own separate careers.
Artistic ensemble of Ministry of Defence "Stanislav Binički", under the conductor Vojkan Borisavljević, held a concert named "Mamma mia" in "Dom sindikata" in Belgrade, where they performed hits from the Swedish band ABBA. OT Bend, alongside Maja Odžaklijevska, Nada Pavlović, Tijana Dapčević, Jelena Jovičić, Milena Vasić, Dejan Lutkić and Marinko Madžgalj performed as vocal backup, under the sponsorship of Swedish Embassy in Serbia. Special guest was prima donna of Belgrade Opera, Jadranka Jovanović. On January 11, 2010, announcement was made that Vukašin Brajić, with the song "Munja i grom" ("Thunder and Lightning") by Edin-Dino Šaran, will represent Bosnia and Herzegovina at Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo, Norway.
