Selma Bajrami

Selma Bajrami is a Bosnian singer, born on 4 July 1980 in Tuzla. Since her debut album in 1998 she has released nine studio albums and more than thirty music videos, and she is regarded as one of the most prominent and commercially successful pop and pop-folk performers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, at her most popular in the 2000s.

She grew up in the village of Mramor near Tuzla, where she spent the whole of the war and began singing at local festivals, and in 1997 finished the chemistry high school in Tuzla. Her first album, Kad suza ne bude..., was recorded in Belgrade with songs by Milić Vukašinović and released by Nimfa Sound in 1998. Soon after she became lead singer of the Tuzla girl group IF, which sang at the Budva and Forte festivals in 2000.

Her second album, Ljubav si ubio gade (1999), made her known across the country with "Pijanico", "Život liječi rane" and the title song, and included "Nikad od tebe čovjeka", written for her by Dino Merlin. Revolucija (2001) was her first release in Serbia too, through Grand Production, and Žena sa Balkana (2002) gave her "Škorpija" and "Žena sirena", which became one of her nicknames. In 2003 she finished sixth at the Bosnian Eurovision selection with "Zaljubljena".

Kakvo tijelo Selma ima, released at the end of 2004, with the title song and "Tijelo uz tijelo", made her one of the leading pop-folk names in the Balkans. Ostrvo tuge (Grand Production, 2007), with "Lijepe žene" and a duet with Aca Lukas, sold over 280,000 copies, her best-selling album. In 2008 she and her partner Enver Lugavić Kice won the second season of the show Zvijezde sa zvijezdama. "Farmerice" followed at the end of 2009, and Zakon sudbine (2010), with "Voli me do bola", "Bakšiš" and "Sarajevo", sold over 100,000 copies.

Between 2011 and 2013 she sang as a special guest at three finals of Zvijezda možeš biti ti, won by Mirza Šoljanin among others, and she was a guest at Saša Matić's first big Sarajevo concert in 2013. Her eighth album, Selma, came out on City Records in 2014.

Later singles included "Mlađe slađe" with Enela Palavra (2015), "Zvjerka" (2016), "Rizik" (2018), "Lažni gospodin" (2019) and "Dama" (2024), written for her by Al' Dino; with "Embargo" in August 2024 she completed her ninth album. In 2025 she said she was working on a tenth with a new team. She has lived near Vienna since 2012.