Zumra Mulalić

Zumra Mulalić was a Bosnian singer of sevdalinka, the old love songs of Bosnia. She was born in Doboj in 1928 and died in 1993. She is on Muzika-Balkan because she was born in Doboj and spent her singing life at Radio Sarajevo; the sources do not say where she lived or died.

After the Second World War she became one of the first female soloists of Radio Sarajevo, at a time when women were rarely professional singers. She is named among the first professional sevdalinka singers, together with Sofka Nikolić, Lela Karlović and Rejhana Osmančević. The accompanist Jozo Penava and the accordionist Ismet Alajbegović Šerbo helped her at the start, and in the early 1950s she sang with a folk orchestra led by Šerbo's accordion, later with the tamburica orchestra of Radio Television Sarajevo.

She sang the slow, broad sevdalinke, with a clear voice and rich ornaments, and she is remembered above all for keeping older songs alive. The best-known example is "Sini, sini sjaj-mjeseče", named after the first line of a poem by Safvet-beg Bašagić.

In 1952 Jugoton released her shellac records with Šerbo: "Od kako je Banja Luka postala" with "Svadili se orli i sokoli", and "Gdje si dragi, živa željo moja" with "Sarajevo, behara ti tvoga". Jugoton issued the EP "Konja kuje brate Sulejmane" in 1966, and Diskos the EP "Skupile se cure u sokaku" in 1967. She also appears on the compilation 50 najljepših originalnih sevdalinki beside Zehra Deović and Nada Mamula. Her husband, Milorad Todorović, played harmonica in the Radio Sarajevo orchestra for decades. Much of her archive from the 1950s and 1960s was later lost.

The playlist gathers the four songs of the 1967 Diskos EP and her 1952 "Od kako je Banja Luka postala".