Hiljson Mandela

Hiljson Mandela

Ivan Hilje (born 15 September 1992), better known under his stage name Hiljson Mandela, is a Croatian hip-hop musician, songwriter and singer, and also a member of a hip hop group KUKU$. He is a son of Croatian opera singer Diana Hilje and showed his interest in music at an early age. In 2008, aged 16, he founded an alternative-rock band Prazna Lepinja, singed and played a saxophone. In 2013, the band released their first studio album Danasutra. Alongside his two friends from childhood – Ivan Godina (better known as Goca R.I.P), and Mislav Kljenak (Iso Miki) – he founded a trap group KUKU$, which made them a pioneers of the same genre in Croatia. In May 2022, he released his first solo studio album – Mandela Effect, which soon gained popularity in Croatia and regionally, especially because of viral songs such as "Cura S Kvarta" (translated as "A Girl From the Block"), "Mbappé", "McLaren" (recorded in collaboration with Serbian rapper and singer Rasta), "Neće K***c" (with Croatian rapper Grše), "Lova" (translated as "Cash") and others. He won his first Cesarica award for collaboration with Croatian singer Zsa Zsa for their song "Ova Ljubav" ("This Love") for 2020. In 2022, he got a nomination for collaboration with Miach on her song "NLO", which became his second nomination for that award. In February 2023, he got the prize Zlatni Studio as "one of the best new names on the Croatian music scene".

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