Šemsa Suljaković
| Šemsa Suljaković | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Šemsa Suljaković |
| Born |
29 September 1951 Maglaj, PR Bosnia-Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia |
| Genres | folk, turbo-folk, pop-folk |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Years active | 1971–present |
| Labels | PGP-RTB, Diskos, Nimfa Sound, Grand Production |
| Associated acts | Sinan Sakić, Mile Kitić, Dragana Mirković, Kemal Malovčić, Sejo Kalač, Južni Vetar |
Šemsa Suljaković (born 29 September 1951) is a Bosnian folk singer.
Suljaković was born in Maglaj, Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Bosnia was a part of Yugoslavia. She was born as the eldest of six children into an ethnic Bosniak family. They lived in Misurići, a small village in Maglaj that consisted of five or six houses, in which lived mainly members of the Suljaković family. The yards of the village were connected with plum and cherry orchards. Suljaković's parents divorced when she was young. She has called her childhood "pleasant", regardless of the fact that her parents divorced and fought over custody of her.
She lived in Misurići until the second grade, when the family moved to the village of Jelah by the Usora river in Tešanj. They moved again, four years later, to her grandfathers home in Širokac, Sarajevo. At the age of 13, she started helping her mother at work.
Šemsa's singing career began after her mother moved the family to their grandfathers home in the Širokac village of Sarajevo, where a singer by the name of Sena lived. Sena was married to an accordionist and performed at a local kafana frequently. One night, Sena persuaded Šemsa to come with her to the kafana. That night Šemsa discovered her talent for singing and the next day the owner of the kafana asked her to start singing there nightly. Her music career officially began in 1971 in that restaurant owned by a man named Josip Soft in the Nedžarići part of Sarajevo.
After seven years in that kafana, Suljaković recorded her first extended play (EP) Otišla je ljubav s našeg kućnog praga / Ja zbog tebe sve (The Love Is Gone From Our Doorstep / I Do Everything Because of You) in 1978, with lyrics written by Rade Vučković and music by Šaban Šaulić, along with the music ensemble of Aca Stepić. She continued singing in the kafana while her songs received airplay. The two songs did well, but the success did little for Suljaković's professional career as the public assumed the singer was Branka Stanarčić, another Yugoslav performer, due to similarities in their voices.
...
Wikipedia