Damir Imamović

Damir Imamović, born in Sarajevo in 1978, is a Bosnian singer, songwriter and interpreter of sevdalinka, the traditional love song of Bosnia. He comes from a family of sevdah singers: his grandfather was Zaim Imamović, and his father, Nedžad Imamović (1948-2020), was a bassist, producer, singer and author with whom he sometimes performed.

He was fourteen when the siege of Sarajevo began in 1992, and he stayed trapped in the city until 1995. It was then that he learned his first instrument, the guitar. His teachers included Spaso Berak, the multi-instrumentalist and sevdah arranger for Himzo Polovina, saz player Hašim Muharemović and singer Emina Zečaj.

Imamović gave his first concert at the Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2004. With the Damir Imamović Trio, with Edvin Hadžić on double bass and Vanja Radoja on violin, he released Svira standarde in 2006 and Abrašević Live in 2008, which won him the Davorin music award and carried his first own sevdah composition, "Dva se draga". He also worked with filmmaker Marina Andree-Škop on the documentary Sevdah, which won the audience award, the Heart of Sarajevo, at the Sarajevo Film Festival in 2009.

The solo album Damir Imamović followed in 2010, and Svrzina kuća, recorded live on 27 and 28 July 2011 at the historic Svrzo house in Sarajevo, was released by iTM that October. In 2012 he formed Damir Imamović's Sevdah Takht with bassist Ivan Mihajlović and percussionist Nenad Kovačić, later joined by violinist Ivana Đurić. The group played Druga Godba, Balkan Trafik, Culturscapes, TFF Rudolstadt and WOMEX 2015 in Budapest, signed to Glitterbeat Records and released Dvojka in 2016, produced by Chris Eckman.

His album Singer of Tales (Wrasse Records, 2020), made with Ivana Đurić, Derya Türkan and Greg Cohen and produced by Joe Boyd and Andrea Goertler, was named best European album of 2020 by the Transglobal World Music Chart. At the 2021 Songlines Music Awards it won the Best of Europe category, and Imamović was also nominated for Best Artist. On stage he has worked with Vlatko Stefanovski, Tamara Obrovac, Jadranka Stojaković and many others.

Imamović is also a researcher and teacher of the genre. He wrote Sevdah, a book on its history (2016, in English in 2017), created the exhibition "Sevdah, the art of freedom" (2015) and has run SevdahLab, a programme of lectures and workshops, since 2013. He produced The Art of Saz by the older sevdah master Ćamil Metiljević in 2014 and the debut of young saz player Jusuf Brkić.