Sanja Ilić was a Serbian composer and keyboardist who began his career at the age of 12 by composing music for other artists. He composed the Yugoslavian entry "Halo, halo" by the group Aska which finished in 14th place at the Eurovision Song Contest 1982 in Harrogate. He also composed another song which attempted to represent the country at the 1984 Contest.
In 1998, he founded the group Balkanika and together they represented their home country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon with the song "Nova deca", although Ilić was not present onstage. They participated in the second semi-final and qualified for the final where they finished in 19th place with 113 points.
He died on 7 March 2021 at the age of 69 due to complications caused by COVID-19, less than three weeks from his 70th birthday.