Goran Bare – frontman, vocalist and founder of the Croatian rock band Majke from Vinkovci – has died at the age of 62.
The sad news comes on the heels of the band’s recent cancellation of their show in Makarska on September 26, 2026, which they couldn’t play because Goran wasn’t feeling well.
Goran Bare was born on August 16, 1965, in Vinkovci, where he grew up in a working-class family. Even as a kid he was hugely into music, and the defining moment came when he discovered The Rolling Stones. That was when he decided to dedicate his life to rock’n’roll.
By the age of twelve he was already trying to pull a band together, and in 1980 he and his friend Marino Pokrovac founded Duo debili. Even as a teenager, Bare showed he was an oddball who refused to be squeezed into a mold or settle for the ordinary. At the end of 1984 he started Majke, not knowing that the band would become one of the central names in Croatia whenever the talk turns to uncompromising garage rock!
As the founder, singer and leader of the Vinkovci rock outfit Majke, he gradually built a reputation as one of the most recognizable figures on the Croatian rock scene. His raw vocals and unique stage presence, but above all his honest, deeply personal lyrics, became firmly lodged in the hearts of generations of listeners. His road was never an easy one, and he said so without mincing words in his songs.
Majke first made a splash in 1989 with tracks on the compilation “Bombardiranje New Yorka”. A year later the band released their debut “Razum i bezumlje”, which music critics in Croatia declared the rock album of 1990.
Bare left a big mark on the Croatian rock scene, especially with hits such as Teške boje, Mene ne zanima, Put ka sreći and A ti još plačeš.
Over his career he picked up quite a few Porin awards, and 2012 stood out in particular, when Majke won a whopping six Porins for the album “Teške boje”.
In the photo: Goran Bare performing with Majke on February 22, 2013, at Cvetličarna in Ljubljana (RockLine photo archive 2006-2026, all rights reserved. You can check out the full RockLine review of that show HERE.
