Selim Salihović

Selim Salihović was a Bosnian sevdalinka singer and saz player. He was born in 1910 in Janja, then part of Austria-Hungary and today in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is why he is on Muzika-Balkan under Bosnia, and he died in Bijeljina in 1988.

He fell in love with the sevdalinka as a small child, and above all with the saz, the long-necked lute that men often played to accompany their own singing. He recorded with Emina Zečaj, and there are singles on which he accompanies the Zenica singer Muhamed Pašić Mašura, among them "Akšam dođe, jacija se sprema" and "Majka Muju mladog oženila". He also played the saz for Himzo Polovina on "Dunjaluče, golem ti si", "Od mora eto svatova" and "Širi mjesec po Igmanu zrake". In the 1970s he recorded several songs for the archive of Radio Sarajevo.

His playing had a rhythm of its own, with short, clipped pauses that he used to accent certain phrases. Bosnian Wikipedia points to his version of "Gledali se Mujo i Nizama", released in the Sevdalinke edition of the Bosnian broadcaster (CD 4), as a fine example. Like most saz players he sang in a strongly nasal voice, without much effort, and his ornaments followed the melody he picked in unison on the saz.

His best-known songs include "Beg Ali-beg po jezeru strijelja", "Eno zora, svanut mora", "San usnila Osman-begovica", "Moj zumbule što si uvehnuo" and "S one strane vode Sane". The playlist gathers five of his old saz recordings, from "Kad ja pođoh aman" to "U Gradačcu gradu bijelome".