On the eleventh anniversary of the legendary singer-songwriter's death, we remember one of the most beautiful love stories of the domestic music scene, marked by an unusual pre-wedding request.
On this day, August 17, we mark the eleventh anniversary of the death of Arsen Dedić, the legendary musician, poet, and singer-songwriter who passed away in 2015 at the age of 78 from sepsis at the Zagreb University Hospital Center. Just two months after burying their son Matija Dedić in August of last year, his wife, the music diva Gabi Novak, also passed away, concluding one of the most impressive love stories of the Croatian cultural scene.
Arsen and Gabi were harmonious both privately and professionally. He wrote a large number of compositions for her, and their joint musical ventures achieved great success. However, the path to their relationship was far from simple because, when they met, both were married to other partners.
At the time, Gabi was married to Stipica Kalogjera, while Arsen was married to Vesna Matoš, the niece of Antun Gustav Matoš, with whom he had a daughter, Sandra. Interestingly, at Arsen's first wedding in 1961, the best man was Nikica Kalogjera, Stipica Kalogjera's brother, which later became a sort of family curiosity.
Gabi first married at just 19 to Bogdan Debenjak, but that marriage was short-lived. Her marriage to Stipica Kalogjera lasted until 1970, while Arsen divorced five years earlier. They were introduced by the shared music scene, specifically by Mario Bogliuni, a long-time music editor at RTZ.
Gabi once recounted that Arsen already knew who she was before they met. "Arsen said: 'Don't tell me; I certainly know who Gabi Novak is. I already had her picture glued in my folder in Šibenik in '58.' And he brought that folder to the next rehearsal. I immediately knew we would be wonderful friends and very close," Story.hr reports her words, originally published by Večernji list.
That closeness eventually grew into something much deeper. "After we both became single and divorced from our previous partners, we became lovers, then parents to our Matija, and a month after his birth, spouses," the late Arsen Dedić once said.
Although they had their son Matija together in 1973, Arsen had an unusual condition before they married. Gabi recounted it without hesitation: "Matija was born in '73, and then we got married; Arsen said we wouldn't get married 'until I give birth to a child for him,' imagine... He said: 'And if it's a boy, then you're mine for the rest of your life.'"
Arsen passed away on August 17, 2015, at the Zagreb University Hospital Center, and after his death, Gabi revealed that her husband always told her that if something happened to him, she had to move on, mostly for the sake of their son Matija.
