Fazla

Fazla is the stage name of Muhamed Fazlagić, a Bosnian pop singer and songwriter born on 17 April 1967 and the frontman of the Sarajevo group Fazla Bend. He is remembered above all as the voice of Bosnia and Herzegovina's very first Eurovision entry.

In 1993, in the middle of the war, the national broadcaster RTVBiH held BH Eurosong in its Sarajevo studios, and an expert jury picked "Sva bol svijeta" from eleven songs. Composed by Dino Merlin, with lyrics by Fahrudin Pecikoza, the song describes the war then raging in the country. On stage Fazlagić was joined by Amir Bjelanović, Edina Salkanović, Enver Milisić, Erliha Hadžović and Izudin Kolečić.

In the qualifying round in Ljubljana on 3 April 1993 Fazla sang first and came second of seven with 52 points, which took the song to the final in Millstreet, Ireland. There he sang 18th and finished 16th of 25 with 27 points, including the top 12 points from Turkey. During the vote static on the line from Sarajevo was clearly heard: most of the country's telephone lines were down, and the link had to go by satellite.

The same year he released his first album, also called Sva bol svijeta, with contributions from Hari Varešanović of Hari Mata Hari, Dino Merlin, Alka Vuica, Fahrudin Pecikoza, Adi Mulahalilović, Amir Bjelanović, Neno Jeleč and others.

Fazlagić had also played football in Sarajevo, as a youth player of FK Sarajevo and then in the first team of Bosna, and he later turned to coaching: in 1996 he founded the football club United in Louisville, Kentucky. He graduated in business administration from Sullivan University in 2000 and took a master's degree in diplomacy at Kentucky State University in 2003. He has kept recording: a new version of "Sva bol svijeta" came out in 2023, and in 2026 Hayat Production released "Do zadnje bore", which he co-wrote, and a live "Lejla".