Balasevic was born in Novi Sad in 1953. A high school dropout, he scored his first major success in 1977 with a tango single "U razdeljak te ljubim" sold in 180,000 copies, a big success by Yugoslav standards. The next major success came in 1978 with a song celebrating the communist revolution, "Racunajte na nas", popular with both authorities and people, and widely promoted as a generation hymn. After that, all the doors were opened and Balasevic has been a major figure in Yugoslav pop-music scene ever since.
Many of his songs in the late 1980s dealt with controversial issues surrounding the breakup of the socialist Yugoslavia, criticizing any negative changes produced by the change of political and economic system. Although he didn't openly criticize Serbian nationalism in the early 1990s, he did refuse to join the Serbian army and was in de facto house arrest for a while during the Milosevic years. Balasevic remained very popular across all former Yugoslav countries. It is perhaps worth noting that Balasevic has grandparents living near Koprivnica, Croatia.
His style has been constant and very distinctive, marked with nostalgia and rich narrative saturated with gentle moods. He was influenced by the poet Mika Antic and songwriter Arsen Dedic, although Balasevic is shy in acknowledging his creative debt.