Muhamed Mujkanović

Muhamed Mujkanović was a Bosnian folk singer and one of the best-known voices of sevdalinka from Tuzla. He was born there on 10 January 1941, one of eight children of Hasan and Zumreta, in a family where nearly everyone sang. Besides the old Bosnian love songs he sang newly composed folk music and wrote about forty songs of his own.

He sang at school events from 1956, and as a pupil of the Tuzla secondary school of chemistry he performed with the town's folk ensembles. In 1962 he took second prize at Tuzla's first competition for amateur singers, and a year later he signed his first professional contract. For most of his life he also worked at the Tuzla salt works. In 1968 and 1969 he won two contests for new voices, and in 1969 he made his debut at the Ilidža festival in Sarajevo, finishing third.

A long run of singles followed from 1969: "Proklet da je život cijeli", "Reci zbogom" and "Zašto si tužna ljubavi moja" in 1970, then "Ne kuni me dijete milo", "Grli me, ljubi me" and in 1979 "Hej, svirači". He recorded about 300 folk songs for the radio and television archive, much of it for Radio Sarajevo.

His greatest festival nights came at Ilidža. In 1983 he won with "Emina u majke jedina", the first song he wrote himself, and in 1988 he won again with "Prelijepa Bosna". "Moj sevdahu" brought him a silver record in 1987, and in 1990 "Bili smo skupa jednu noć" won the golden lyre at the Vogošća festival. In 2000 he received the Đulistan award for preserving the Bosnian sevdalinka.

Over his career he released about 30 singles, ten LPs and dozens of cassettes, and he gave many charity concerts. He marked his anniversaries on stage in Tuzla, with a concert at the Bosnian Cultural Centre for his 50 years of singing in 2010. Muhamed Mujkanović died in Tuzla on 9 January 2015, a day before his 74th birthday, after a stroke.