Fahreta Jahic-Živojinovic, or better known as Lepa Brena, is arguably the most well-known and successful singer of the 1980s in the former Yugoslavia and nowadays a successful producer of folk-pop music. She was born as Fahreta Jahic, on October 20, 1960 in Brcko, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
She and her band Slatki Greh ("Sweet Sin") were the first to combine traditional Yugoslav folk music (in particular, the traditional Serbian "Kolo" dance) with modern pop elements, and went on to inspire and influence an entire generation of musicians. Songs such as "Mile voli disko" (1982), "Miki, Mico" (1985) and "Cik pogodi" (1990) are amongst the most well-known and popular songs in the history of Yugoslav music, and are definitive of the music of that era.
Lepa Brena and her band "Slatki greh" formed in 1982, gaining immediate success with their first album, which featured the hits "Cacak, Cacak," and "Ljubi me, Omere." The Yugoslav public quickly fell in love with the 21-year-old singer.
That success promptly reached unexpected heights with the release of their second album later that year, delighting the folk-loving masses with the enormous hits "Mile voli disko", "Duge noge" and "Dama iz Londona". They also achieved success with the song "Sitnije, cile, sitnije", a contender for the Yugoslav spot in Eurovision 1983.
In 1984 Brena returned with a new album and hit song "Bato, Bato". Her sexy new image, along with the band's more refined musical style, took her to even greater levels of stardom. They toured relentlessly in support of the album, which also spawned the hits "Bosanac," "Igraj Boro, moje oro" and "Moj je Lola zvezda roken rola" amongst others. By now, the ensemble had become renowned for their catchy pop-folk stylings and playful lyrics (the object of Brena's affection in "Moj je Lola." is an Elvis Presley wannabe, whose obsession with rock music forces her to proudly declare her own devotion to traditional folk: "Waltz? NO! Disco? NO! Kolo? YES!").
Over the course of the next three years, another three albums would follow, which collectively featured the hits "Šeik," "Mace moje," "Nežna žena," "Miki, Mico," "Okreceš mi leda" and many more. In addition to these albums, she also teamed up with fellow singer, Miroslav Ilic, to record four duets, including the romantic "Jedan dan života." The highly successful collaboration also featured "Živela Jugoslavija" ("Long live Yugoslavia") which was equally hated as it was loved, due to its overtly political subject matter (Brena made no attempt to hide her support of a united Yugoslavia, despite the sensitivity of the issue). This controversy, however, did not deter the star from performing the song at the opening ceremony of the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. As well as at the Winter Olympics, Lepa Brena performed the song at a major concert in Romania in 1984, where she sang the song to the crowd while being lifted up in a fruitpicker crane.
By the end of 1986, Lepa Brena had become the most famous person in Yugoslavia, and had also well and truly cemented her status as a sex symbol. This success, however, showed no sign of waning, and in 1987 she continued to dominate popular culture with the release of her movie "Hajde da se volimo" ("Let's Love Each Other"), which featured songs from her album of the same name. With this release, her musical style took a gigantic leap forward, the songs containing a much more modern edge and stylish pop-infused production, without abandoning their traditional folk roots. The project was so successful that she went on to film parts 2 & 3 (in 1988 and 1990), each in support of a new album. This string of LP's produced an extraordinary number of hit songs, including "Hajde da se volimo", "Golube," "On ne voli me," "Udri Mujo," "Biseru beli," "Ja pripadam samo tebi," "Zaželi srecu drugima," and "Cik pogodi." In addition to these was the beautiful "Jablane," written by Dino Merlin (a hugely successful singer/songwriter) as well as "Jugoslovenka," another controversial collaboration, this time with three male singers, each from different parts of Yugoslavia (Alen Islamovic, Vlado Kalember and Danijel Popovic).
After releasing yet another album, "Zaljubiška," in 1991, Brena took a well-earned break from her hectic touring and recording schedule, leaving wartorn Yugoslavia to start a family with new husband, tennis player Slobodan Živojinovic in the United States.
She returned to audiences in 1994 with a highly successful solo album (her first without Slatki greh), which featured one of her biggest hits to date, "Ja nemam drugi dom" ("I Have No Other Home"). The song, her personal favourite, is a touching ode to her first son, Stefan, and also (one would suspect) a reference to the disintegration of her beloved homeland ("I have no other home, but the home inside your heart").
Two more solo albums followed; "Kazna božija" (1995) and "Šta je bilo, bilo je," (1996) the latter featuring the songs "Luda za tobom" and "Ti si moj greh" (a cover of Elena Kostantopoulou's "Pia prosefhi - the Greek entry in Eurovision 1995), which would become two of the most successful songs of her career. After another three-year hiatus, the year 2000 saw Lepa Brena reuniting with "Slatki greh" for one last project, an upbeat collection of songs, reminiscent of their earlier material. Although the release failed to live up to the commercial expectations of its predecessors, it contained the fan favourites "Kolovoda" and "Meni je teško, najteže."
