Al Dino

Al Dino (also written Al' Dino or Al'Dino), born Aldin Kurić on 21 July 1970 in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a Bosnian singer, songwriter and composer of pop and ethno-pop music. He grew up in Jajce, where he went through primary and secondary music school. He learned the guitar at five, then the accordion and piano, and finally the bass: at sixteen a tape of the jazz fusion band Weather Report made him take up the bass guitar. He only began to sing in secondary school, and he later finished a jazz school in Freiburg, Germany.

After his army service he studied medicine in Sarajevo, played bass at jam sessions with the city's jazz musicians and fell in love with sevdalinka, the traditional songs of Bosnia, which he began to sing in Sarajevo restaurants under the name Al'Dino. When the Bosnian War began he went to Stuttgart, where he played bass for Bosnian artists including Dino Merlin, Hari Mata Hari, Halid Bešlić, Safet Isović and Haris Džinović, and worked as a one-man band in German and Italian restaurants, singing in seven languages.

He came back to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1998 and recorded his first solo album, Odlaziš, released in 2000; its title song was his first big hit at home. Na drugoj adresi (2002) followed with "Sanjam bolji svijet", "Sedam godina", "Sve će ovo jednom proći" and "Tu sam ja".

His biggest success came with the album Kopriva, released at the end of 2004. Its title song crossed the borders of Bosnia and became a hit in Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, and "Čaršija" from the same album is considered the anthem of Bosnian emigrants. The album, which also holds "Sudnji dan", "Bosanska" and "Samo je nebo dom", was named album of the year and won the Davorin award at the Grand Prix radio festival in Zenica. At the Serbian radio festival Feras he took first place with "K'o ljudi", a duet with Goca Tržan.

His fourth album, Stariji, stood out with the ballads "I sad me po tebi poznaju" and "Nikad mi se ne spava", a duet with Mostar Sevdah Reunion. In March 2010 he released the single "Srce se predalo", and at the end of July 2011 his fifth album, Zavjet ljubavi. Al Dino has appeared at festivals at home and several times in Bosnia and Herzegovina's national Eurovision selection in Sarajevo. He has been signed to Hayat Production, has two sons and lives in Sarajevo.