Omer Pobrić

Omer Pobrić was a Bosnian sevdalinka singer, accordionist, composer and producer, born in 1945 in Tešanj, where he spent his childhood. The love of music came from his mother Zlata and his brother, and he liked to say he grew up with the harmonica in his mother's lap. Bosnian Wikipedia counts him among the most important composers of the sevdalinka.

He finished secondary school in Ilidža and studied biology and chemistry at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Sarajevo, but music became his life. From the early 1970s he appeared on records by Zaim Imamović and Meho Puzić, and from 1980 he produced dozens of records for Jugoton, Diskoton and Sarajevo Disk, among them Hanka Paldum's album Sjajna zvijezdo, singles by Hasna Kašmo and Amela Zuković, Halid Muslimović's "Amela", records by Emina Zečaj and Kalesijski zvuci, and many albums of izvorna and folk music.

His longest partnership was with Safet Isović, whose albums Šta se ovo Bosnom čuje (1986) and Za dušu i sjećanje (1988) he produced and accompanied with his ensemble. He also worked with Himzo Polovina. In 1979 he founded the music studio Omega, later run with its own label from Visoko, where he worked as producer, recording manager and composer.

Under his own name he released Hitovi Omera Pobrića (1993), collections of Bosnian kolo dances and Meraklije: Sevdah kajde Bosne (1996), recorded with colleagues. In 2003 he founded the Institut sevdaha in Mulići near Visoko, where he lived, and in his books he wrote down almost a thousand sevdalinke.

Omer Pobrić died on 20 January 2010, aged 64, while driving between Sarajevo and Visoko.