Alma Ekmečić

Alma Ekmečić is a Bosnian pop singer and television personality, born on 8 November 1957 in Sarajevo. From the mid-1970s to the late 1980s she was one of the bright pop voices of Sarajevo and Yugoslavia, moving from festival schlager to funk, disco and dance pop.

Her career began with a beauty contest. In 1974 she was crowned Miss Bosnia and Herzegovina and finished as second runner-up at Miss Yugoslavia, and the title brought her a contract with Diskoton of Sarajevo. Her first single, "Sjećanje na ljeto" with "Naša mlada ljubav", came out the same year, and she sang "Sjećanje na ljeto" at the Prvi aplauz festival in Banja Luka. Her early songs were written by composers such as Slobodan "Bodo" Kovačević and Aleksandar Korać.

Through the 1970s she was a regular at the Vaš šlager sezone festival in Sarajevo, with "Svako ima svoju ljubav" by Vojkan Borisavljević in 1975, "Nestašne riječi" in 1976 and "Skreni lijevo" in 1978, the year she also sang "Čudna sredba" in Skopje. She toured the Soviet Union with Indexi and Africa with Aske and the ballet group of Petar Slaj. Her 1979 single "Djetelina s četiri lista", released by PGP RTB, turned her towards funk, soul and disco, and in 1981 Diskoton gathered her singles on the compilation Skreni lijevo.

Her biggest success came after a move to Jugodisk in Belgrade. The title song of the 1982 album Seks bomba was composed by Enco Lesić, with lyrics by Bora Đorđević of Riblja Čorba. Sad ili nikad followed in 1985, mostly composed by Aleksandar Radulović "Futa" with lyrics by Marina Tucaković, and she sang "Zamisli da se volimo" at Opatija in 1985 and "Ne ostavljaj me sad" in Zagreb in 1986. Back at Diskoton she released Majke mi in 1987, a return to schlager and danceable pop; its title song, on which Mladen Vojčić Tifa also sings, became a hit and was her song at Vaš šlager sezone that year.

During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina she left for Paris with her daughter, and later returned to Sarajevo, where she lives. This playlist is her own archive of television performances from 1974 to 1987, from "Sjećanje na ljeto" and "Skreni lijevo" to "Seks bomba", "Zabranjena zona", "Deseti dan" and "Majke mi", with two later interviews with Alma Ekmečić on radio and television.