F E N K S T A
"470, POVEZANOST KAO KULA"
Design by Alex Cherry
HOW IT ALL STARTED
Beatmaking and songwriting started some time in high school with a program called Music Maker 2004. Romel, my best friend, showed me the software and I made a few beats on it. In senior year of high school, a classmate gave me FL Studio, 'cause he was using it to for his beats, and I started writing my first bars around that time.
The next year, Romel and I formed KUGA (Kraljevi UnderGroundA) and I've been doing almost all of the beats for us. We wrote "Ulicama Gradskim", which became some sort of anthem for the city of Umag. I moved to the USA in 2012 to study Music Recording Technology to get an actual music education and learn the craft on a professional level. After I graduated, I moved back to Umag and ended up in Zagreb, where I live now.
I've participated in a beat contest on a forum called "Beatality" in 2010 that was judged by big names in the Croatian Hip Hop scene. I took the W on that one, with maximum points available, but didn't participate in anything similar up until 2015. That's when the Facebook group "Art of Sampling" caught my eye, which was holding weekly beatmaking contests with samples chosen by the winners of the previous round. I was active on there while it lasted, managed to win twice, but the group has since died down. Since 2020 I have also been participating in annual Beat Battles at the Reunited Hip Hop Festival in Zagreb and I have won in 2023 and 2024, but also got 2nd place in my first two years.
I've also been on a few music related shows. In 2010 I went to Supertalent with beatboxing, in 2019 I participated in Rap Camp, which is similar to Rhythm + Flow, the same year I tried out for The Voice, but didn't make it to the Blind Auditions, I submitted a song for Dora 2024, but wasn't picked. Then in 2024 I signed up for Superstar, which I withdrew from, because I managed to get to the semi-final of Supertalent, this time as a rapper. Most important of all, I sent a song for Dora 2025, was listed as a second reserve, but I got a respectable 9th place for a second try at this.
Other than that, the love for music and audio manipulation is strong and ever-present. If you are feeling what I create, then let's get creative together.
NEWS
What's happening in the world of Fenksta
DORA 2025 - 9th PLACE !!!
04.03.2025.
It's a dream come true. We've had the shortest amount of time to prepare and I had the privilege and enormous luck to be contacted by somebody with actual Eurovision experience who wanted to be part of this project. So before we talk about Dora, let's name the people responsible for this wonderful experience:
- Saša Stević "Fenksta" - artist, beatmaker, producer
- Kruno Licitar "Macola" - mixing & mastering engineer
- Đuro Ravenšćak - recording engineer
- Iva Hađina - choreographer/dancer
- Martina Martinić - dancer
- Lucija Jurić - dancer
- Leona Habel - dancer
- Nika Vrbica "Salicula" - costume designer
- Alexander Kolb (USA) - creative director
- Daniel Stridh (SWE) - LED designer
- Jakub Ratzka (CZE) - LED designer & lighting enginner
- David Kuzmanović (SRB) - pyrotechnics (not part of our team, but we love him, he's the fire-GOAT)
There is so much to talk about, so let's jump into the most important aspects. After our first call, the international team came up with a "creative bible" to have all the do's and don'ts in one digital spot. Then I sat down with Nika and Iva separately to talk about what we can do and gave them my two cents. Everything came together super fast, but we also had a deadline for HRT so everything had to be completed within 15 days or so. After a few hiccups, we then made it to Opatija and immediately started with rehearsals. The first day (Saturday) was a shit-show for everybody, because we are all now getting used to the new space, the stage is much bigger than we expected, and worst of it all, you have 15-20min on stage to figure it out and 30min afterwards in the viewing room. By Tuesday we were all set and extra confident that it'll work out. Come Friday and the rehearsal before the show, we've gotten even better. All the other artists had us in their Top 5 and as a guaranteed qualifier for the final. That ended up happening - we were announced first and you could hear a giant roar coming from the arena.
Saturday, rehearsals for the final, so many people were sick, all of us dead tired, and to make things worse, Leona got injured after our afternoon rehearsal, so we had to figure out a new choreo in less than 3 hours, so that she is still able to perform. Iva was able to come up with something safe and still visually appealing, and we were able to perform it for the juries later that night.
Sunday, day of the final, it was decided that we're going with the modified choreo for safety. Since the worst was behind us, the final performance was all about having fun. I did not expect getting more jury points with a song of this nature, but I guess juries like 20-30% less effort hahaha
10/10 - will come back
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FUTURE PROJECTS
08.12.2024.
This year has proven to be the most active and succesful yet. Here's what's cooking in the kitchen:
- ESC EP
- Eurovision 2024 Medley (cover)
- "Lucifer (Remix)"
- surprise cover song
- unnamed relationship song