Senka Veletanlić

Senka Veletanlić, born Senija Senka Veletanlić on 27 May 1936 in Zagreb, was a Serbian and Yugoslav singer of schlager, chanson and light music. Her family's roots were in Bosanska krajina in Bosnia, where her father came from, and her mother was Slovene. She died on 19 January 2026, aged 89.

She started in the choir of the cultural society Joža Vlahović, with which she first sang in Paris, Belgium and Italy, and made her first recordings for Radio Zagreb in 1958. Her breakthrough came at the Opatija festival in 1960 with "Noć bez zvijezda", and she returned to Opatija with "Plavi nokturno" (1961), "Malo mesta za nas" (1964) and other songs.

Most of her career was spent in Belgrade, and for more than twenty years she was a regular at the big Yugoslav festivals. At Beogradsko proleće she sang "Priča o izgubljenoj ljubavi" (1963), "Ime mi je ljubav" (1975) and "Tražiš oproštaj", which won in 1972. At Split she sang "Do viđenja u jesen" (1967), at Vaš šlager sezone "Zaželi, ja ću doći" (1971), and in 1971 she took part in the Yugoslav selection for Eurovision with "Sunčani ples". In Skopje in 1972 "Uspavanka za reku" won the expert jury's first prize, and in Zagreb in 1981 she won with "Golubice". She also sang at the Zagreb festival from 1961, when she sang "Odgovor u vjetru", and at Pesma leta with "Ti nisi moj" in 1969.

Music ran in the family. She was married to the singer-songwriter Zafir Hadžimanov, with whom she sang duets such as "Papagalo", "Golubice" and "Beograd, stari bekrija" (1982); her sister Bisera Veletanlić was also a singer, and her son Vasil Hadžimanov is a jazz musician. In 1984 the three singers of the family sang "Pesma ljude voli" together at Opatija. Her album Prva senka gathers songs such as "Nasmejana", "Bojim se" and "Pevačica".