Croatian Radio Television (HRT) will pay tribute to the late Mate Mišo Kovač tonight by showing a recording of his final major concert. The two-hour recording will be broadcast on HRT Two at 19:10.
The footage is from the concert "Mate Mišo Kovač and Friends", held on 5 June 2022 at Split's Staro Plac. The performance, as reported at the time, gathered tens of thousands of his fans, with Hina reporting that around 30,000 people sang along at Staro Plac.
The concert, titled "Only the Sky Can Separate Us", was held at Staro Plac, formerly Hajduk's playing field in Split. Visitors sang his greatest hits with Mišo for almost three hours. A stage approximately 60 metres long was set up for the concert, featuring around 200 light effects.
Mišo opened the evening with the song "Dalmatia in My Eye". Numerous musical friends and colleagues joined him on stage, including Jole, Alen Nižetić, klapa Rišpet, Saša Antić, Slavonske lole and his daughter Ivana Kovač. During the concert, Mišo emphasised several times how much returning to the Split audience meant to him and how closely he was tied to Hajduk. "It is more important to fill Split than Madison Square Garden", he told the crowd.
His granddaughter Elena brought him a rose on stage, and Ivana Kovač admitted she could not hold back her tears while watching her father and her daughter before such a large audience. Mišo ended the concert with thanks to the crowd, while his name was chanted from Staro Plac. The performance remains remembered as his last major concert of such scale.
Mišo Kovač died yesterday at the age of 86.
