Slaven Živanović – Žiža, lead guitarist and founding member of Croatian hard rockers Opća Opasnost from Županja in Slavonia, has passed away at the age of 53 after a short, severe illness.
Žiža was born on August 15, 1972 in Slavonski Brod, and in 1992 he and vocalist Pero Galić made the call to start a hard rock band. He also wrote some of the band’s songs. Between 1993 (debut “Opća opasnost”) and 2019 (latest album “Karta do prošlosti”), the band put out eight studio albums. The second one, “Treba mi nešto jače od sna” (1994), cemented their status, helped along by the songs Opća opasnost, Jednom kad noć, Nebeski znak and Treba mi nešto jače od sna, which went down a storm with audiences.
The band never officially split up, but the creative break between “Ruski Rulet” (1997) and its follow-up “Vrati se na svjetlo” (2011) was a seriously long one. In 2008 they decided to get back to work in earnest, and the first sign of that was their show on July 10, 2008 in Osijek, Croatia, where Opća opasnost opened the night for Whitesnake.
On December 27, 2024, RockLine headed straight to Županja for Opća opasnost’s traditional pre-New Year’s concert. The band played with Žiža in the lineup, and even at that show he was showing signs of fatigue and fragile health. It never crossed our minds that it would also be our goodbye to the guitarist. You can read the RockLine review of that gig HERE.
In mid-January this year, the band unveiled the new single Praštaj nekom drugome, complete with a lyric video.
In the photo: Slaven Živanović – Žiža during Opća opasnost’s show on April 21, 2017 at Orto bar in Ljubljana (RockLine photo archive 2006-2025, all rights reserved). You can read the full RockLine review of that gig HERE.
