Merima Njegomir

Merima Njegomir was a Serbian folk and sevdah singer, born Merima Kurtiš on 9 November 1953 in Zemun. Her father, Adem, was of Turkish origin from Ohrid, and her mother, Fatima, was a Bosniak from Bijeljina, which links her to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Over more than four decades she recorded some 24 albums and sang in about twenty languages.

She first sang in public almost by chance, for friends, with the orchestra of Jasim Alagić at the Citadela restaurant, and from 1 May 1972 she performed with that orchestra. Svetomir Šešić Šele heard her at another restaurant and arranged trial recordings for Radio Belgrade, and in September 1972 she enrolled at the Kosta Manojlović music school in Zemun. Her early popularity came from her versions of Bosnian folk songs such as "Moj dilbere" and "Sejdefu majka buđaše".

Her first album, Gde ste, moji srećni dani, came out on Jugoton in 1981; from Mezimica (1982) she recorded for PGP RTB, later PGP RTS, through albums such as Opilo nas vino (1985), Da nije ljubavi tvoje (1987), Zbog tebe (1990), Pamtim još (1995) and Bol bolujem (1998). Later came Crnogorski biseri 1 (1999), Vojvođanska bajka (2005), Pjesme iz Crne Gore (2005), Sevdalinke (2012) and Magla padnala v dolina (2014). Her best-known songs include "Ruzmarin", "Zbog tebe", "Što je lepo kad se neko voli", "Kad zaškripi kapija" and "Ivanova korita", released in 2005, covered by many artists and later recorded again in a new arrangement.

Besides folk songs, her mezzo-soprano took in jazz, classical, pop and Romani music, and she was especially known for Russian folk songs and romances; she also sang in Hebrew, Greek, Turkish, Hungarian and Italian. She took part in more than 45 festivals and won over twenty first prizes, among them Zlatiborska pesma in 2005 and Valandovo in 2018, and she received the Vukova nagrada in 2005 and a lifetime achievement award in 2019.

Merima Njegomir died of pancreatic cancer on 20 November 2021 in Belgrade and was buried in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens at the New Cemetery. This playlist is her 2005 album Pjesme iz Crne Gore, with "Ivanova korita", "Šetajući pored Ljubovića" and "Sanak me mori".