Dalibor Andonov (, ; 8 March 1973 – 9 September 2019), known professionally as Gru, was a Serbian musician, DJ, rapper and actor. His song Biću tu from the 1996 album Gru 2, gained him popularity in Eastern Europe, as well as the 2010 release I dalje me žele alongside Serbian rapper Ajs Nigrutin. His album Gru 2 is the most commercially successful album in Serbia, selling four million copies, and reaching certified gold status in Serbia. Other than his immense popularity in the Balkans, he is well known in other countries of Eastern and Northern Europe. He has been dubbed The Serbian Rap Machine.
A native of Dimitrovgrad, Andonov started his career in Belgrade, with his earliest demos in 1994, but rose to prominence with his music work in early 1996. Marking the first wave of Serbian hip hop with his debut album Da li imaš pravo?, Andonov produced five albums as a solo artist, out of which four reached gold and platinum status in Serbia. The albums included critically and commercially acclaimed songs that topped the Balkan charts, including Srce, Biću tu, Kad se popnem na binu, Kiša, and Da li imaš pravo?, winning him three Serbian Oscars of Popularity, an Indexi Award and a World Music Award. The songs were noted as traditional hip-hop compositions with elements of funk and soul. Since Beograd in 2003, Andonov has stepped down from making albums and has been producing singles. His more recent work incorporates radio friendly melodies, which embarked commercial success, including I dalje me žele, Plan B, Kilo koke and Biću tu (20 godina kasnije), winning an Index Award, an Oscar of Popularity and an MTV Platinum Award.
Andonov also had done work for television and film, including appearances in Operacija trijumf, Veliki Brat VIP All Stars and Tvoje lice zvuči poznato. He made his film debut in 1997 as Vanja in Land of Truth, Love & Freedom, and actively composed films, including Undisputed II: Last Man Standing and Dorćol-Manhattan. He died on 9 September 2019, following a kite-surfing accident.
Early life Andonov attended trade school in Pančevo. During his education, he avidly played football and basketball. In 1988, his cousin living in Sweden gave him a Straight Outta Compton album by N.W.A., which he cites as his most important possession from his earlier years. After high school, he went to study business, but never finished due to his love of music. After, he had moved to Belgrade, where he began to produce music and MC. Soon he became skilled at DJing, beginning to MC in the early nineties. His DJing style resembled the one of Nigerian-Swedish recording artist Dr. Alban, which he idolised at the time. Andonov chose the stage name Gru, from the music term which senses propulsive rhythmic feel or dynamics, groove.
Career 1994–1999: Debut album and Gru 2 (Biću tu, Srce) Andonov began his career in 1990 as a founding member in the Yugoslav recording act Project 6, which disbanded in 1993. His first demo recording as a vocal soloist was produced in 1994, although his first public releases date back to 1995, with the album Da li imaš pravo? (Do You Have The Right?) which marked the beginning of the first wave of Serbian hip hop. His debut album was recorded at Studio Jugodisk and Studio Avalon from 24 October until 10 December 1994, although it was released a year after. In the first recording he collaborated with Enco, who was featured only in that recording, more specifically in the sequence Život je lep (Life is beautiful).
Andonov published the album Gru 2 in October 1996, and it gained him notoriety in the Balkan countries, becoming the most commercially successful album in Serbia to date, selling 4 million copies, which holds the record as the best-selling album in Balkan history. The songs in the album included emotional ballads (Dosta mi je svega/Poludecu) and gangster anthems (Srce). Gru 2 contains the most songs done as alliances with other Serbian musicians of all his albums. These include Leto (Summer), with Leontina Vukomanović and U-Stuff, Srce (Heart) with Leontina Vukomanović and Nenad Jovanović, Dosta mi je svega/Poludecu (I'm Done With Everything/I'm Going Crazy) with Srđan Babović and Dejan Ivanković, Čovek je čoveku vuk (A Man is a Man's Wolf) with CYA and ILaLa, Petak (Friday) with Bojan Todorov and Coca, and Biću tu with Niggor of the Monteniggers. All songs featured lyrics and music arranged by Andonov, with guitar playing done by Voja Aralica, and co-writing done by Dejan Ivanković Betoven, who was a guest vocalist on Dosta mi je svega/Poludecu. The album was produced by producer Srđan Babović, on behalf of the label Komuna. Gru 2 was recorded at Studio Puž.
The track Biću tu (I'll Be There) from the album, became his signature song, and became an evergreen Serbian rap song, incorporating elements of soul and funk, into hip-hop and rap. A song heavily hinted by prostitution, Biću tu was accompanied by a music video that was controversial due to provocative content. The song was also credited by Dragan Brajović Braja to have found the balance between commercialisation and underground. The Gru 2 album earned him two Serbian Oscars of Popularity, one for the album itself, and one for the single. The song Srce won Andonov a World Music Award in 1997 in category of Best Hip-hop Singles.
In 1999, he helped produce the Full Moon and Monteniggers single Ja se vraćam u svoj hram which his chorus melody is the foundation for the song Samo sex Srbina spasava. He won the Serbian Oscar of Popularity for Best Concert, premiering the album Vetrenjače (Windmills). Windmills also gained the honorific title as certified gold in Serbia, claimed in 2000. Songs from the album merged hip hop with swing, which was another autochthon creation in Serbian music done by Gru. He toured Eastern Europe in 1999.
2000–2006: Između redova, Beogard In 2000, Metropolis Records published a rendition of his debut album Da li imaš pravo 5 years after the original issue, on CD. The rendition included various guests, including Serbian music producer Marko Kon, hip-hop group CYA, rapper Đorđe Radivojević Ramirez (ex Sunshine), Bojan Todorov and Vladimir Ilić. He also had his film debut in Land of Truth, Love & Freedom as Petar Peca, and composed the soundtrack for Dorcol-Manhattan. In 2004, he starred in the Serbian dub for Shrek as Lord Farquaad, alongside Nebojša Glogovac as Shrek, Anica Dobra as Princess Fiona and Radovan Vujović as Donkey.
In 2002, he released the album Između redova (Between the Lines), on which he had worked on for 7 years with the label City Records, since 1995 until 2002. The song MF "Gru – Ko Je Gru?" (MF Gru – Who is Gru?), went in a new direction, as it interpreted the musical style of eurodance. Biću tu was released again on the album due to the popularity it generated. That same year, he was invited by Prva Srpska Televizija to voice Squilliam Fancyson for the Serbian dub for SpongeBob SquarePants. He would later provide the voice of Fat Tony for the Serbian-language version of The Simpsons Movie.
In 2003, he released Beogard (a pun of the word Belgrade). Songs Doktore and Tamo gde si ti featured guest vocals from Mario Jovanović from the band Rhythm Attack and from Bane Danilović from Who Is The Best. The same year, he was featured on Marchelo's album De Facto, more specifically the song Bolji život (Better life), where Marchelo provided guest vocals. Beogard also featured the chart-topping Stara škola, nova škola, which was done as a collective work with rappers Juice, Shorty, Sky Wikluh and MC Drejz. He was Don Trialeon's guest star in Trialeon's radio show Škola alongside The Jungle Brothers, Sole, Coolio and RZA of The Wu Tang Clan.
In 2004, he re-recorded Kiša (Rain), from his 2003 album Beogard. The 2004 version included vocals provided by Macedonian recording artist Tijana Dapčević. He provided the voice for Anchor for the Serbian Finding Nemo, starring Branislav Platiša and Anica Dobra and acted in the documentary Poslednja Nova Godina that same year. In 2006, he co-wrote the soundtrack and composed Adrenaline Junkie for the American film Undisputed II: Last Man Standing. He went on an international tour in June 2006, having shows in Australia, The United Kingdom, South Africa, the United States, and France.
2007–2010: The Ultimate Collection, television projects From 2007 to 2010, Andonov primarily started DJing. In an interview, he stated that he didn't produce music, but did DJ and perform. He did an international tour in 2009, rapping in Canada, Scandinavia and (Germany). He announced that he helped produced the Nisam Ljubomoran (I'm Not Jealous) single by Montenegrin-born singer Vlado Georgiev in his Georgiev's recording studio Barba in 2005.
In 2009 City Records launched The Ultimate Collection, which was composed out of his most popular songs at the time. Songs Pravo u raj, Srce and Over reached number 1 on the Serbian Prva Charts after the second publishing. Adrenaline Junkie and Nebo ispod zemlje were published as renditions due to the refreshed motives of RnB and Swing music.
By the end of 2009, Andonov had cut ties with the Serbian record label City Records who had done production for his both compilation albums.
Andonov was a contestant in the third version of the Serbian version of Big Brother, titled Veliki Brat. He participated in the All Stars version, and reached second place as a finalist. He also took part in the seventh gala for Operacija trijumf, alongside Croatian musician Dado Topić, American pop artist Anastacia, and Macedonian vocalist Kaliopi on 10 November. At the time, when the four artists formed the seventh gala, Mirjana Kostić and Kristijan Jovanov were expelled, while contestants Adnan Babajić and Milica Majstorović were nominated. Later, he helped produce the song "Bistra voda" for Mirjana Kostić and performed shows alongside her.B92: Nataša želi na "Evroviziju"
2010–2014: I dalje me žele, Dugme po dugme, Biću tu (20 godina kasnije) In 2010, Andonov alongside Serbian rapper Ajs Nigrutin released I dalje me žele (They Still Want Me) as a hip hop duet. The rap song had similar motives as Biću tu. The song achieved numerous accolades, including "The Number One Best Rap Song of 2010" by Kurir and the "Number One Best Hip-Hop Songs of the Last Decade" by Blic. It also spawned numerous covers of varying Your Face Sounds Familiar adaptations. He voiced Minion in the Serbian dub of Megamind, alongside Dragan Mićanović, who dubbed Megamind, and appeared in two episodes of Ulica lipa, as the fictional Leskovac native Branislav Savić.
In 2011, he produced Idemo na sve by Serbian singer Ana Kokić and Romanian recording artist Costi Ioniță, which went on to top the charts in December 2011. In 2011, he won the Indexi Award for his collaboration with Ajs Nigrutin.
In May 2012, he performed with Bosnian-born rapper Edo Maajka in Dom Mladih in Sarajevo, on behalf of Maajka's Štrajk mozga album tour. The same year, Andonov toured the US for 3 months, performing in Carnegie Hall in New York City, and in Troubadour in West Hollywood, California, and later returned to DJ in his native Dimitrovgrad.
In early 2013, he landed a role as the dub for Dr. Blowhole in the Nickelodeon-based animated TV show Penguins of Madagascar. In late 2013, it was revealed that Andonov collaborated with Marchelo and his crew on a new book-album titled Napet Šou (Tense Show), which was published in October 2014. The album is composed of 18 tracks which were recorded with contribution from over 30 artists, which included Andonov. Gru collaborated with Juice and Napoleon on the track Šta da radim sad (What Do I Do Now). Andonov produced instrumentals for the entire Tvoje lice zvuči poznato franchise. He performed with choreographer Aleksa Rafiović Zile and the dance crew an ABBA medley, in the final episode of the first season.