Irena Žilić is a Croatian musician steadily growing in popularity and garnering international recognition. She entered the music scene by shy self-publishing her first recordings as the “Days of Innocence” EP at the end of 2012. Her musical genesis served solely as a way of breaking out of her mold, as a means to encourage herself to perform and become more inclusive with her music. At the close of 2014, she released “Travelling”, her debut LP record. The album was very well received and named 4th most important Croatian album of the last 30 years by the Croatian edition of Rolling Stone magazine.
Irena’s anticipated second LP “Haze” was released in 2017 as a clear representation of artist’s growth. This collection of tracks is engulfed in wistful and dark shadows pierced by her stirring vocals and executed with remarkable poise. The extremely intimate and emotional second album was announced with singles “The Moon”, “X” and “Omega”.
Following two years bring a lot of novelties for Irena like the award for the Pop Artist of the Year by the Independent Croatian Award Rock&Off, nomination for Porin, Croatian Music Award in the category “Best Alternative/Club Music Album” for her sophomore LP album, collaborations, an award for the singer-songwriter of the year by one of the shows on the Croatian National Radio. In 2018 she joined Morcheeba as the opening act for their tour dates in UK and Italy and in 2021 the band released a cover of Irena’s song “The Moon”.
During this very rewarding period, Irena released three new singles in 2019 (“EWO”, “Defeats” and “Tremors”) that announced EP “Small Hours” (2020). This four-song extended play is made of stories about self-reassessment moments, told with Irena’s dreamy and emotional vocal performances.