Sabahudin Kurt

Sabahudin Kurt was a Bosnian folk and pop singer, and also an actor, from Sarajevo, where he was born on 18 July 1935 as an only child. He was the first singer from Bosnia and Herzegovina to represent Yugoslavia at the Eurovision Song Contest.

He recorded his first song, "Dim u tvojim očima" ("Smoke in Your Eyes"), in 1954, when he was nineteen. In 1963 he released two singles that celebrate his city, "Pjesma Sarajevu" with "Hvalisavi mornar" and "Mala Sarajka" with "Sarajevske noći".

In 1964 he sang "Život je sklopio krug" ("Life Has Come Full Circle") for Yugoslavia at Eurovision in Copenhagen. The song finished 13th, without a point.

His later records include Vaš šlager sezone '70 with Hamdija Čustović (1970), "Oj, sevdahu što si težak" (1972) and "Temerav, temerav" (1974), and a compilation, Zlatni jubilej, followed in 2004. In all he made six EPs and singles and one compilation album, and he gave many concerts across Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former Yugoslavia. As an actor he appeared in the comedy series Karađoz, shown on TV Sarajevo between 1969 and 1971. On 25 November 2012 he was among the guests who honoured the composer Kornelije Kovač for the 50th anniversary of his career.

Sabahudin Kurt married Ismeta in 1966, and they had two sons, Damir and Almir, who became a Sarajevo actor. After a heart attack and triple-bypass surgery in 2007 he retired from music and moved to the village of upper Vlakovo in Ilidža, on the edge of Sarajevo. He died on 30 March 2018, aged 82.