Nada Mamula

Nada Mamula, born Nada Vukićević on 9 January 1927 in Belgrade, was a singer of sevdalinka and traditional songs and one of the most popular singers of Yugoslavia in the second half of the twentieth century. Her career is bound above all to Radio Sarajevo, and she is remembered for her warm alto voice.

She began at Radio Beograd, where she passed an audition in 1946 and gave her first professional performances with Danica Obrenić and the accordionist Voja Trifunović. After marrying Nikola Mamula she moved to Sarajevo, and according to the writer Berbić she passed the soloist audition at Radio Sarajevo in 1951. Her first sevdalinka there, and one of her most famous, was "Ah, meraka u večeri rane".

Together with Zaim Imamović she largely defined the 1950s and 1960s at Radio Sarajevo and became a benchmark for the radio style of singing sevdalinka. Her circle there included Himzo Polovina, Ismet Alajbegović Šerbo and Jozo Penava, and her friends and colleagues included Zehra Deović, Safet Isović, Hanka Paldum and Meho Puzić. With Isović she sang "Oj, Safete, Sajo, Sarajlijo".

She was a regular at the Ilidža festival, singing "Još ove noći čaše nam dajte" in 1964 and winning a second jury prize in 1968 with "Gdje si noćas, kada kiša pada". In 1970 she sang "Na teferič pošla nana" at the Beogradski sabor, and she returned to Ilidža in 1973 with "Sarajevo, mjesto najmilije".

Her best-loved interpretations include "U đul bašti", "Mujo kuje konja po mjesecu", "Bosno moja", "Omer-beže", "Negdje u daljine", "Bere cura plav jorgovan" and "Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu", the unofficial anthem of Sarajevo. Her records were few: two LPs for Jugoton, four LPs released in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands and Bulgaria, and a few dozen singles. She left more than 150 recordings in the archives of Radio Beograd, Radio Novi Sad and Radio Sarajevo.

She later returned to Belgrade, and her last recordings were made in 1991 for the archive of Radio-Television Belgrade with its folk orchestra under Ljubiša Pavković. Nada Mamula died in Belgrade on 11 October 2001 and was buried there.