Severina Bids Farewell to Vedrana Rudan
The singer posted an emotional tribute on Facebook to the late author, recalling their friendship, shared moments, and Rudan's battle with illness.
The singer posted an emotional tribute on Facebook to the late author, recalling their friendship, shared moments, and Rudan's battle with illness.
Croatian singer Severina posted an emotional tribute on Facebook to the late author Vedrana Rudan. In a lengthy post dated August 18, 2026, she recalled their friendship, Rudan's battle with illness, and her unyielding personality.
Severina began her post with these words: "She's gone, how unreal. But she can't be gone. She conquered everything this damn life threw at her, thorns, beatings, loves, humiliations, slights, threats... She rose steadily and gracefully, slapped back when needed (verbally, of course), even at her illness (literally). She'd knock it down, kick it, and get back up. My Vedrana. Our love, a heroine without a hair on her long tongue. A witch who cast spells through her pen that every paper absorbed."
She also recalled how Rudan reacted when she learned of her illness. "When it all started, the woman called me, furious as a dog. Not at the illness, not at that tumor. No, she was angry because the women in the hospital had plastic pillows," Severina wrote.
Rudan then asked: "Seve, they sleep on pillows that make them sweat, can we get proper pillows for the hospital? I feel sorry for those women." Severina also shared her own response: "Vedrana, how are you, do you need anything?" to which Rudan replied: "Nothing, Seve, just keep screwing them all."
Severina also revealed that at one point, the Croatian Health Insurance Fund (HZZO) refused to cover the cost of a treatment. "HZZO refused to cover a treatment at one point. I wanted to organize a fundraiser, I was crying to her about it. She forbade me, and you couldn't argue with her. We bought the pillows immediately, along with pillowcases, and had them delivered. That was all that mattered to her. And how the nurses in hospitals are dropping from exhaustion."
The singer also described how Rudan suffered inwardly but continued to give herself to others. "She always called me after my messes: 'Kid, I'll write about you again! Those villains won't get away...'" Severina recounted.
She particularly remembered one of their last conversations, when Rudan told her she had published a book but couldn't promote it because of the 'cancer thing.' Severina offered to help and took the book on her travels. "I open the first page, and the title of that chapter was 'Severina, Tito, Yacht, and Me'... and inside she wrote, '...if I had a movie like that, I'd show it before the evening news,'" she wrote.
At the end of her post, Severina reflected on Rudan's sense of humor even in the toughest moments. "She loved me, but once at the end of a call, when I said 'I love you,' she said: 'Just don't you love me, look how those poor souls you loved ended up...'" the singer concluded.
Severina also mentioned Slavenka, a person who passed away in June, and reflected on her own pain: "Our girl in the embrace of metastases, the pain has stopped for you. It begins for us. You didn't know how to say goodbye to Slavenka, who left in June. That's how I struggle to say goodbye to you when I don't want a farewell... I want to laugh with you more, even though you so rarely did. And you had every right; nothing about us is funny..."
