Željko Samardžić

Željko Samardžić is a singer of folk and pop music, born on 3 October 1955 in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. His father Milivoje, from Montenegro, was an officer of the Yugoslav People's Army, so the family moved often, living in Nikšić, Igalo and Zadar before returning to Mostar when he was a teenager; his mother Nada came from Ilići, a suburb of Mostar. He began singing in secondary school, was known for his impressions of Kemal Monteno, sang in kafanas and restaurants and ran a café near the Old Bridge.

His schlager "Moja Marija" became a hit in Bosnia after the Prvi aplauz festival in Banja Luka in 1974. With the group Rondo he sang "Imena nisu važna" at Vaš šlager sezone in Sarajevo in 1983 and "Linda" at the 1984 Yugoslav Eurovision selection in Skopje, where it came tenth. His first album, Jednom kad nam dođu sijede, came out in 1987, and Želja followed in 1990.

In 1992, in the Bosnian War, he was wounded in the leg and hip by a stray bullet. He fled Mostar with his wife and daughter through Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary to Serbia, settled in Borča on the edge of Belgrade and sang in discos and kafanas. After he performed at the Ambasador club, businessmen who liked him paid for an album made with Marina Tucaković and Aleksandar "Futa" Radulović. In 1995 he won a prize at Pjesma Mediterana in Budva with "Sipajte mi još jedan viski", and the albums Sudbina (1995) and Sećanje na ljubav (1996) brought him wider recognition. In 1996 he sang "Samo je nebo iznad nas" with Neda Ukraden and "Amajlija" with Šaban Bajramović, and in 1999 "Nema više ničega" with Davorin Popović of Indexi.

Zveket srca (1997), Sve je moje tvoje (1999), Sentimentalan čovek (2001), Pokaži mi šta znaš (2004), Lice ljubavi (2006), Kojim dobrom mila moja (2009) and Mila (2017) followed. "Mogu još da poludim" won him a prize at the Forte festival in Sarajevo, and in 2000 he came third at Sunčane skale in Herceg Novi with "Sve je surovo".

Duets have stayed central to his work: "Neka živi život" with Kemal Monteno and "Zato krademo" with Miligram (2009), "Ima nade" with Jelena Rozga and "Najlepša greška" with Legende (2010), "Aleje ljubavi" with Crvena jabuka (2020), "Nekada i sad" with Saša Matić (2022), "Znam" with Kaliopi (2023) and "Maestral" with Duško Lokin (2026). He received the Naxi Star award for his contribution to music in 2020. Željko Samardžić is married to Maja, and they have three daughters, Sanja, Danijela and Minja.