Haris Džinović

Haris Džinović is a singer of folk and pop-folk music from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as a composer and lyricist. He was born on 26 September 1951 in Sarajevo, the son of Muhamed, an engineer, and Hatidža, an economist. He got his first accordion at the age of nine and in the 1960s moved on to the piano and later the guitar. He also took up tennis, athletics and skiing, and played football professionally for FK Željezničar in Sarajevo.

He has been active on the music scene since 1975, when he released his first singles, "Jedan dio mog života" with "Nema više stare majke", and "Domovino" with "Želim tebe", songs he wrote himself. In 1976 he sang "Gdje su naši dani" and "Slobodanka" at the Ilidža festival, and returned there in 1977 with "Dođi noćas".

The turning point came in 1981, when he founded the group Sar e Roma with the brothers Stevo, Branko and Ljubomir Pavlović and, unlike most folk singers of the time, turned to Roma music. The group released three albums: Kao Cigani (Diskoton, 1982), Kiko, Kiko (Jugoton, 1983) and Sar e Roma (Diskoton, 1985).

From 1989 he went solo, working with Marina Tucaković, Aleksandar Radulović Futa and Mića Nikolić. At Poselo godine 202 in 1989 he sang "Ostariću neću znati", "Sjećaš li se one noći" and "I tebe sam sit kafano", taking second place, and in 1991 he sang "I tebe sam sit kafano" at MESAM. After two albums for Diskoton, in 1989 and 1991, he held his first solo concert at Belgrade's Sava Centar on 13 June 1991. He also sang "Ja ne pijem", the first hit written by Aleksandar Milić Mili of Miligram, together with Hari Varešanović.

In May 1992 the war forced him to leave the country. He lived in Vienna, where he organised and sang at humanitarian concerts for Bosnia and Herzegovina in Austria and Germany, and later in France, where he opened the restaurant Harris in the centre of Paris with friends. After selling it he returned to the former Yugoslavia, and at the start of December 2000 his new album came out on Grand Production for the Yugoslav market and Zepter Music for Europe. Magic followed in 2009 and Haris, on City Records, in 2017. In November 2011 he was a special guest at Montserrat Caballé's concert in Belgrade.

In 2014 he married the fashion designer Melina Galić, to whom he dedicated "Pariške kapije"; they have a daughter, Đina, and a son, Kan, and divorced at the end of 2023. Haris Džinović lives in Belgrade.