Mia Čičak (Croatian pronunciation:[ˈmi.aːt͡ʃǐːt͡ʃak]; born in 1998), known professionally as Miach (Croatian pronunciation:['mi.ˈɑt͡ʃ]), is a Croatian singer and songwriter. She is most known for her collaborations with Hiljson Mandela on "NLO" (2022) and "Anđeo" (2024), and with Grše on "Fantazija" (2024). "Fantazija" peaked at number one on Billboard's Croatia Songs chart for fourteen weeks. In September 2022, Miach released her debut EP Između nas through Aquarius Records. A year later, in November 2023, she released her debut studio album, Insomnia which included the single "Led".
Early life
Mia Čičak was born and raised in Zagreb, Croatia.[3] During elementary school she started training taekwondo in which she earned a black belt over the years.[4][5]
She completed her undergraduate university study in International Relations and is currently finishing her graduate studies in Business Economics and Globalization at the Libertas Business College in Zagreb.[5]
Career
2021–2023: Early career and breakthrough to music scene
In February 2021, she started her own YouTube channel, entitled Mia Čičak, posting acoustic covers.[4] In 2021 Čičak teamed up with Croatian songwriters and producers Vlaho Arbulić and Mihovil Šoštaršić and started working on her first songs in their Republika recording studio.[3] Their first project was her debut single "23 32" which was released independently in late 2021.[6] In early 2022, she signed a record deal with Aquarius Records and shortly after released her second single "Budi tu".[7] "Trnci", her third single, was released in July 2022.[8] Continuing her collaboration with songwriter and producer Mihovil Šoštarić, Čičak began working on her debut EP in 2022.[9] Čičak's debut EP titled Između nas was released on 19 September 2022.[10] The EP's lead single "NLO" is a collaboration with Croatian rapper Hiljson Mandela.[11] Debuting at number 28 "NLO" became Čičak's first single to chart on the HR Top 40 chart.[12] On 30 September 2022, Čičak held her first concert as a part of the Lil Drito Festival schedule at the Tvornica kulture in Zagreb.[13] On 5 December 2022, she released the Između nas (Live Session) EP which includes live and acounstic versions of songs from her debut EP.[14]
At the 2023 edition of the Cesarica Awards, Čičak was nominated in the category the Song of The Year with her song "NLO" but lost the award to Eni Jurišić's "Trebaš li me".[15] On 8 February 2023, Čičak received a nomination for the 30th Annual Porin Awards in the category Best New Artist.[16] The song "SMS" was released in March 2023 as a single from her yet-untitled debut studio album.[17] Following the song's release, Čičak was announced as a performer at the 2023 Sea Star Festival in Umag on 20 May 2023.[18] On 24 March 2023, Croatian musician Baks released "Gram" with Čičak, a new track on his third studio album Dopamin.[19] She was the opening performer of the Telekom Electronic Beats festival organized by Hrvatski Telekom in Zagreb on 26 June 2023.[20] On 23 June 2023, she was announced as one of the performers of the Rock&Off Festival Tour which will be held in six different Croatian cities during July, August and September.[21] Additionally, on 28 June 2023, it was announced that Miach would be one of the performers at the Graffiti na Gradele festival in Bol, Croatia which was held on 30 July 2023.[22]
On 9 October 2023, she collaborated with Croatian rapper Goca R.I.P to release a track titled "Navike", which was featured on his extended playBesmrtni 2.[23]
2024—present: First studio album Insomnia
Miach released her first studio album, Insomnia, on 21 November 2023, via yem.[24] The album's lead single, "Led", featuring Croatian rapper Grše, was released on the same day.[25] In Croatia, "Led" made its debut at the second position on the charts, marking the highest peak for both artists in their respective careers.[26] They collaborated once more in February 2024 when the song "Fantazija" was released as the lead single for Grše's upcoming third studio album.[27] On the chart issue of 17 February 2024 the song debuted at number one on the BillboardCroatia Songs chart, becoming Čičak's first chart entry and first number one single.[28] On 11 February 2024, "Tempo" was released as the second single from Insomnia, accompanied by a music video.[29] To promote her first studio album, Miach held her first solo concert on 8 March 2024 at the Tvornica Kulture iz Zagreb.[30]
In June 2024, Čičak was announced as the voice actress for Valentina Ortiz, originally voiced by Lilimar, in the Croatian dub of Inside Out 2.[31] Miach performed as the opening act for famous American R&B and EDM singer-songwriter Jason Derulo at his concert in Pula Arena on 7 August.[32]
On 25 August 2024 Miach released her new single "Iluzija" which quickly got in Youtube trending.[33] On 28 October 2024, Miach and Hiljson Mandela released "Anđeo," which served as the official soundtrack for the Croatian television series Sram.[34] In its second week, the single reached the number one position on HR Top 40, Billboard Croatia and Shazam Top 200 charts.[35]
On 29 October 2024, Miach earns the award "My first Music Pub" awarded by Croatian journalist Zlatko Turkalj as part of his show Music Pub on Croatian Radio, which has been awarded since 1992 to musicians for their musical work in the current year.[36]
Čičak describes her first self-written songs as a mixture of modern R&B and pop sounds.[38] She uses her life experiences as an inspiration in her work but stated that some lyrics are totally a product of her imagination and not autobiographical.[39] In an interview with Glazba.hr she noted how writing a song comes easy to her as she "wrote poems as a child and at one point even a book".[39]
For "NLO": "HR TOP 40 Week 40 2022" (in Croatian). top-lista. 10 October 2022. Archived from the original on 13 October 2022. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
For "SMS": "HR TOP 40 Week 11 2023" (in Croatian). top-lista. 20 March 2023. Archived from the original on 21 March 2023. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
For "Led": "HR TOP 40 Week 49 2023" (in Croatian). top-lista. 11 December 2023. Archived from the original on 15 December 2023. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
For "Fantazija": "HR TOP 40 Week 9 2024" (in Croatian). top-lista. 4 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
For "Tempo": "HR TOP 40 Week 8 2024" (in Croatian). top-lista. 26 February 2024. Archived from the original on 1 March 2024. Retrieved 19 March 2024.