Marko Perković (; born 27 October 1966) is a Croatian musician who has been the lead singer of the band Thompson since 1991. Perković was born in the village of Čavoglave, SR Croatia, within SFR Yugoslavia, today a part of Croatia. He participated in the Croatian War of Independence (1991–95), during which he started his career with the nationalist song "Bojna Čavoglave". In 2002, he started his first major tour after the release of the E, moj narode album. Since 2005, he has been organizing an unofficial celebration of the Victory Day in his birthplace of Čavoglave. During his career, Perković has attracted controversy in the media over his performances and songs, some of which are alleged to glorify or promote the World War II-era Croatian fascist Ustaše dictatorship. Early life Perković was born in 1966 in Čavoglave (at the time SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia) to Marija and Ante. He rarely saw his father, who worked as a Gastarbeiter in Germany and rarely came home. He finished high school in Split. In 1991, Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia, prompting the Croatian War of Independence. Perković joined the Croatian forces and used the American Thompson gun during his time in the war, which became his nickname and later, his stage name. It was while he was defending his home village that Perković became inspired to write one of the most popular songs during the war; "Bojna Čavoglave" (Čavoglave Battalion), which launched his music career. In 1992 Perković held concerts throughout Croatia, and released his first album that same year. He continued to write songs during the war. In 1995 he returned to the Croatian Army and the 142nd Drniš Brigade, and became one of the first soldiers to enter the captured cities of Drniš and Knin during Operation Storm. Career After the war, Thompson's popularity declined. However in 2002, Thompson experienced a resurgence as Perković embraced right-wing critics of the Croatian center-left coalition government who protested the government's cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in extraditing indicted war criminals. On 15 September 2002, he had his largest concert to date at the Poljud Stadium in Split with about 40,000 visitors. In 2007 he surpassed the 2002 concert at the Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb on 17 June 2007, with 60,000 people attending. His concert at the stadium was aired live on the state owned HRT Plus pay-per-view