Mladen Vojičić (; born 17 October 1960), known professionally by his nickname/stagename Tifa (), is a Bosnian rock vocalist. He gained acclaim throughout former Yugoslavia for his brief stint as the lead singer of Bijelo Dugme in the mid-1980s. Apart from Bijelo dugme, he sang in numerous bands with varying degrees of prominence (most notable being Teška Industrija, Vatreni Poljubac and Divlje Jagode). Undisputedly a singer with great vocal capabilities and a distinct vocal range, his impulsive personality and irrational character have often garnered controversy region-wide. Nowadays, Tifa maintains a relatively successful solo career. He lives in his hometown of Sarajevo, but occasionally goes to Belgrade for new projects and work. He also appeared as a waiter in a sketch of popular Yugoslav and Bosnian TV series Top lista nadrealista (1989), and as himself twice in the popular Bosnian sitcom Lud, zbunjen, normalan (2007, 2011). Early life Vojičić was born in Sarajevo, to a Bosnian Serb father Branko and a Bosnian Croat mother Jelena, at a time when Sarajevo was part of PR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He was nicknamed Tifa before reaching the age of 4 because he loved trains and would often shout "Ide lokomotifa" (properly pronounced "Ide lokomotiva" meaning "Here comes the locomotive") because he had problems pronouncing the phoneme "v". He displayed an early propensity for singing. By the age of 5, he knew the entire repertoire of Indexi. In primary school Tifa was an excellent student. Around that time he was a fan of UK band Sweet. He completed gymnasium, but did not excel at university. To please his intellectual father, he tried to work towards a "real job" by attending a number of University of Sarajevo faculties (mechanical engineering, architecture, civil engineering, geodesy), but ultimately abandoned each of them before devoting to music full-time. Musical career Early years Tifa started out as a bass guitar player in the first group he was involved with (Prvi čin). After barely a month, he moved on to Kako kad and only started singing when the lead singer didn't show up for rehearsal one day. After some time the band dissolved as everybody except Tifa lost their interest in music. Tifa's last band before conscript military service in October 1980 was called Paradox. While in the army he stayed in touch with Zlatan Čehić, Paradox's bass player. Together, they also started working on tracks