In 1959, he achieved instant fame by winning the Opatija Music Festival in his singing debut, with the song "Mirno teku rijeke" (Rivers Are Calmly Flowing).

[3] By that time, the authorities had lost interest in his case, but his singing career was effectively over; he was blacklisted, barred from performing publicly and all his records were pulled out of stores.

After the first multi-party election in Croatia and the country's independence in 1991, Vukov became a prominent supporter of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP).

He ran several times for a seat in the Croatian Parliament, finally succeeding as an independent candidate on the SDP party ticket in 2003.

[4] On 17 November 2005, while descending the stairs in the Parliament building, Vukov slipped and fell, sustaining a serious head injury.