Nedžad Salković

Nedžad Salković, born on 6 January 1941 in Tuzla, is one of the best-known interpreters of sevdalinka in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former Yugoslavia. His elegant, refined manner on stage and in front of the TV cameras earned him the nicknames "the prince of sevdalinka" and "the prince of sevdah", and his career has lasted more than six decades.

His father, Zaim, came from Lastva near Trebinje, and his mother, Sahba, née Imširagić, raised their eight children alone after his father died young. The family was among the first in post-war Tuzla to own a radio, and through Radio Sarajevo the boy came to love the singing of Zaim Imamović and the accordion of Ismet Alajbegović Šerbo, writing down the songs he heard and singing them himself.

While at the technical school in Tuzla he began singing romances, old town songs and sevdalinke at the town's Dom kulture, and in his second year he joined the ensemble of Radio Tuzla. On 1 April 1958, not yet eighteen, he sang on Radio Tuzla for the first time, with the traditional "Omer beže". During his army service in Belgrade he was introduced to the bandleader Milorad Krnjevac, who recommended him to Radio Belgrade, and in April 1962 he passed its audition with the Folk Orchestra conducted by Vlastimir Pavlović Carevac. His first radio recording was "Gonđe ružo u zelenom sadu", and he became a vocal soloist of Radio Television Belgrade and later of Radio Television Sarajevo.

His records came out mostly on PGP RTB, from the 1965 single "Zablistalo sunce" on, with Jugoton singles such as "Kad Bosanci zapjevaju" (1966). According to RTS he had made close to eighty records by 2018. His albums include Nedžad (1972), Snijeg pade drumi zapadoše (1975), Večeras me ljubi, ljubi (1978), Ne klepeći nanulama (1982), Jesen u vrtu mom (1984), Imam samo pjesmu (1986), Mejra na tabutu (1993), Šta je život stara moja (2004) and Čežnja (Pismo sinu) (2010). "Ne klepeći nanulama" became the song most closely tied to his name. On 14 February 1970 he represented RTV Sarajevo at Jugovizija in Belgrade with "Čuj me", finishing sixth of fifteen.

He has won more than thirty festival awards and silver, platinum and diamond records, the Estrada award of Yugoslavia in 1986 and the October plaque of the city of Tuzla in 1982 and 1999. In 2010 he sat on the jury of the talent show Hayat traži zvijezdu. For sixty years on stage he gave a gala concert at the National Theatre in Tuzla on 1 October 2018, received the Golden Plaque of Sevdah Fest for lifetime achievement and the Charter of the City of Tuzla, the city's highest honour. In 2019 PGP released a triple compilation of 57 of his recordings. Despite offers from Belgrade and Sarajevo, he has always stayed in his native Tuzla.