Hakala

Hakala is the stage name of Nihad Fetić, a folk and pop-folk singer from Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He grew up in the Višegrad neighbourhood near Vranduk, among old courtyards where singing was part of everyday life. His first serious steps in music came through Zenica's cultural-artistic societies, and he sang in restaurants and kafanas. In 1984 he came before a wider audience as the singer of the group Zov, while working for seven years at the Zenica steelworks.

When the war began in 1992 he left for Germany and signed with Halix Records. His first album, Skitnica velegradskih ulica, came out in 1993 and became a hit in Bosnia, with songs such as "Šta ću kad je volim" and "Umri u samoći", a song first recorded by Bratislav Bata Zdravković in 1989 and later covered by Aca Lukas in 1998. His second album, in 1994, made him popular in Bosnia and Serbia, and "Kafandžija" became his signature song. In April 1994, on a train to Osnabrück, he wrote "Zenica", which became an evergreen. "This is my city, my country, my people," he says of his hometown.

In the mid-1990s he moved to Intakt Records, came back to Zenica and worked in Sarajevo, releasing Kako mi je tako mi je (1996), I da krenem iz početka (1998), Zalud živim bez tebe (2000), Dvadeset i dvije zore (2002) and Moj grad (2004). In 2005 he moved to Bijeljina and signed with VIP Productions, which released 100% that year. He switched to Valentino Records in 2008 and later to Grand Produkcija, and his albums since include Ruka u ruci (2007), Hakala (2009), Dar mar (2010), Žaoka (2012), Da sam umro (2014) and a second Hakala (2015). He tours regularly in Slovenia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Western Balkans, mostly for the Bosnian diaspora.

Hakala lost a brother, who fell on the front as a soldier of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has been married since 1988 and has three daughters.

In 2025 he marked forty years in music with the concert "Zlatnih 40" at the Arena "Husejin Smajlović" in Zenica on 26 December, which his kum and manager Vedad Durmić persuaded him to hold in a big hall. "Yes, it is forty years of service, but I am not ready to retire," he said before it.