Beba Selimović

Beba Selimović
Selimović pictured in 1964
Born	Izeta Selimović (1939-03-27) 27 March 1939 Trebinje, Zeta Banovina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Other names	First Lady of Sevdah
Occupation	singer
Years active	1954–88
Religion	Sunni Islam
Spouse(s)	Dževad Šabanagić
Children	2
Musical career
Genres	Folk Sevdalinka
Instruments	vocals
Labels	Jugoton Diskos Beograd Disk RTV Ljubljana
Associated acts	Safet Isović Meho Puzić Zehra Deović Zaim Imamović Nada Mamula Emina Zečaj

Izeta Selimović (born 27 March 1939), known by her stage name Beba Selimović, is a Bosnian sevdalinka-folk singer and was one of the leading female singers of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s in Yugoslavia, along with Zehra Deović, Nada Mamula and Silvana Armenulić.^[1]

Early life and family

Mene majka gleda sa čardaka (1971) was Selimović's first studio album. Up to that point she had released 23 singles and extended plays over her then-two-decade long career.

Izeta Selimović was born on 27 March 1939 in Trebinje, located in the Herzegovina region of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, while it was a part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Selimović family originally hails from Bileća.^[2] Being the youngest of five children in a Muslim Bosniak family, she was called beba (baby) by her older siblings and took that as her stage name when she became a professional singer.

At the age of four, Selimović moved to Sarajevo with her family in 1943, during World War II, where she completed her schooling.^[3][4]

Career

Aged 14, she was one of six people chosen out of 300 candidates to sing for Radio Sarajevo, which kicked off her professional career in 1954 as a soloist for the station. Her first single, Po mojoj bašti zumbuli cvjetaju (English: In My Garden Hyacinths Bloom), was released in 1958. Selimović retired in 1988 following the release of her final studio album. Although her recorded songs have appeared on many compilation albums since the late 1980s, she has not recorded any new music since then.

During her long career, she sang exclusively in two genres: Bosnian folk and sevdalinka. She has recorded songs with multiple Bosnian sevdalinka singers such as Zaim Imamović, Zehra Deović, Nada Mamula, Safet Isović and Meho Puzić. She was good friends with Isović and Puzić until their deaths in 2007.

Personal life

Selimović married young and became a mother at the age of 20 and was later widowed. She and her husband had two sons together, Samir and Senad. Her second marriage was to violinist Dževad Šabanagić. The couple currently live in Sarajevo and they survived the Siege of Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[5] She was one of the speakers at the funeral for Safet Isović on 3 September 2007.

Although retired from public life and opting to rarely grant interviews, she agreed to be interviewed for a November 2014 article with the newspaper Dnevni avaz. Selimović said that she had retired years ago and ignores requests to perform on television, saying she had given the opportunity to younger generations to "continue."^[6]

Discography

Extended plays

Studio albums

Compilation albums

• Sve behara... (1981)
• Najveći hitovi (2012)

References