Ceca had her first public appearance at the age of nine, in her hometown, and at the age of thirteen she sang in a hotel on the Montenegrin coast, while vacationing with her parents. Here, the acclaimed singer and accordion player Mirko Kodić noticed her, and helped her in recording her first studio album Cvetak zanovetak (The Little Nagging Flower, 1988). At the age of fifteen, she performed at the Ilidža Folk Music Festival in Sarajevo, at which her song "Cvetak zanovetak" won the competition, and became a hit. Ceca was mentored by Dobrivoje Ivanković, a composer and producer of folk music, who launched many careers in the 1970s and 1980s.
Her first two albums, Cvetak zanovetak (1988) and Ludo srce (Crazy Heart, 1989) were made in the traditional Serbian folk music style with some songs, such as "Volim te" (I Love You), having a more modern production. Pustite me da ga vidim (Allow Me to See Him), she quickly became a very popular teenage star and idol for many people in Serbia. Her third album, was a major hit in the former Yugoslavia. Ceca became the best-selling artist of the Belgrade TV's record label PGP-RTB and third best-selling female folk artist in Yugoslavia, behind Lepa Brena and Dragana Mirković. She continued in the same direction with her next album, Babaroga (1991) which included a music video for the song "Hej vršnjaci" (Hey Peers) composed of footage from her eighteenth birthday gala event.
