Our singer became a mother at 14, and did not spend time with her children: 'I cleaned toilets, I had...'

March 8, 2026

TL;DR

Ljiljana Petrović Batler was born in Belgrade in 1944 and died in Germany in 2010 after a battle with cancer.
She started her music career at age 12, replacing her mother at a performance.
She became a mother at 14, with her first husband being 16.
Due to the demanding nature of her musical career, her children were often raised by their grandmothers.
In the late 1980s, sensing the impending war in Yugoslavia, she moved her three children to Germany.
In Germany, she worked various jobs, including cleaning toilets, during difficult times.
Her career was revived when manager Dragi Šestić discovered her and convinced her to record an album for a Dutch production company, marking her 'second career'.
Her life story is documented in a film by the BBC.

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