Ismeta Dervoz-Krvavac

Ismeta Dervoz-Krvavac is a Bosnian pop and schlager singer, best remembered as the voice of the Sarajevo group Ambasadori in the 1970s, and later a well-known television presenter and producer. She was born in Sarajevo on 18 January 1954 and, according to the Bosnian Wikipedia, still lives there, which is why she is on Muzika-Balkan.

She started singing in 1968, at fourteen. Her first real engagement was with the Sarajevo band Kodeksi, where she sang backing vocals for Željko Bebek, with Goran Bregović on bass. She left to study, and after graduating she joined Ambasadori in 1972, debuting with them at that year's Skopje Festival with the Kemal Monteno song "Sviraj mi, sviraj". She was the band's trademark in its most productive years, from 1972 to 1976.

With Ambasadori she came fourth at Vaš šlager sezone 1974 with "Negdje na nekom moru". In 1975 their "Zemljo moja", written by Kemal Monteno, again finished fourth there, won the award for interpretation and became one of their best-known songs. In 1976 they won the Opatija festival and represented Yugoslavia at the Eurovision Song Contest in The Hague with "Ne mogu skriti svoju bol", which finished second to last of eighteen. Soon afterwards she left the band and was replaced by Jasna Gospić.

From 1977 she sang solo, with Ambasadori still backing her and writing some of her songs. Her festival songs "Između jave i sna" and "Opet stare vatre gore" were included on her first LP, Ismeta Krvavac (1979). In 1980 she won Vaš šlager sezone with "Ja nemam mira", sang "Tvoje pismo" at Opatija and recorded the comic duet "U restoranu" with Seid Memić Vajta. Her second album, Ismeta (Diskoton, 1981), had songs by Kemal Monteno, Rajko Dujmić and Zdenko Runjić and words by Arsen Dedić, Duško Trifunović and Marina Tucaković. In 1981 she also sang backing vocals with Neda Ukraden and Jadranka Stojaković on Vajta's Eurovision entry "Lejla".

Later festival songs included "Dobro jutro" (1981) and "Pusti me na miru" (1983); her last public performance was "Plavi jorgovani" at Vaš šlager sezone 1988. From 1980 she also wrote and presented television programmes, became a music editor at Radio Sarajevo, later headed the music and entertainment programme of Bosnian television and was for many years the producer and head of delegation of Bosnia and Herzegovina at Eurovision. She is now retired.