Seid Memić

Seid Memić Vajta is a Bosnian pop and rock singer, born on 8 March 1950 in Travnik. His nickname comes from Captain Wyatt, Gary Cooper's character in the film known in Yugoslavia as Doživljaji kapetana Vajata. His father died early, so as the eldest child he started work at 15, trained as a tailor and worked at the Borac textile factory in Travnik. He first sang with the local group Veseli akordi and won the interpretation award at the 1967 guitar festival in Doboj with "Wild Thing". After a spell working in Austria he returned in 1971, made hippie jewellery and sang with the Travnik group Veziri.

Vedad Hadžiabdić and Gabor Lenđel persuaded him to move to Sarajevo, and he counts 1973 as the start of his professional career. In 1975 he recorded the single "U.F.O." / "Karavan" with the progressive rock group Teška Industrija, and he sang on their first album and several singles before forming Zmaj od Bosne, which played the BOOM festival in Novi Sad in 1977.

His solo career began that autumn with "Narode, narode" / "Ratar", whose lyrics came from the poet Đura Jakšić, and he soon turned to pop and schlager. In 1978 "Samo jednom srce voli" won the interpretation award at Vaš šlager sezone in Sarajevo. The album Zlatna ribica (1979), made with Ranko Boban, lyricist Duško Trifunović and the Split band Metak, went platinum, and Vajta 2 – Ponoćni valcer (1980) and Vajta 3 (1981) followed.

In 1981 he won the Yugoslav selection with "Lejla" and finished 15th at the Eurovision Song Contest; that same year "Mornareva pjesma" won the Split festival. In 1982 "Naša pisma" won Vaš šlager sezone and Tebi pjevam went platinum, and Kad bulbuli pjevaju (1984) went gold. In 1985 he won the Opatija festival with "Labudovi moji". He also hosted and sang in the award-winning children's programme Nedjeljni zabavnik and acted in the film Nečista krv.

At the start of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina he moved to Hamburg. He has kept performing since, winning awards at the Korčula festival in 2001 and 2002, and in 2009 he took part in the Croatian reality show Farma. In 2007 Teška Industrija reunited and released a new album.