Background and career
Fahreta Živojinović (née Jahić; Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic: Фахрета Живојиновић, née Јахић; born 20 October 1960), known by her stage name Lepa Brena (Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic: Лепа Брена), is a Yugoslav singer, actress, and businesswoman. With around 40 million sold records, she is regarded as the most commercially successful recording artist from the former Yugoslavia. Brena is also often credited with creating the turbo-folk genre with her first two albums Čačak, Čačak (1982) and Mile voli disko (1982). Lepa Brena grew up in Brčko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, but has lived in Belgrade, Serbia since 1980, where she started her career. Lepa Brena is considered to be a symbol of the former Yugoslavia, due to the fact that she was one of the last popular acts to emerge before the breakup of the country. She has described herself as being "Yugo-nostalgic". Along with her husband, Slobodan Živojinović and friend, Saša Popović, Brena co-founded and co-owned Grand Production, the biggest record label and production company in the Balkans. In 2019, they decided to sell Grand Production for €30 million.
Born into a Bosniak family in the outskirts of Tuzla, PR Bosnia and Herzegovina, she grew up in Brčko as the youngest child of Abid Jahić (c. 1928 – 22 October 2010) and Ifeta (née Smajlović; 15 April 1934 – 21 November 2014) alongside her sister Faketa and brother Faruk. Both of her parents are originally from villages near Srebrenik; her father was born in Ježinac and her maternal family hailed from Ćehaje. At the start of the Bosnian War in 1992, her sister Faketa emigrated to Canada, where she lives today, while Brena stayed in Belgrade where she had been living since 1980. Her first performance for an audience was in the fifth grade at a local festival, singing a Kemal Monteno song named "Sviraj mi o njoj". She later reflected, "It was the only time in my life that I've ever experienced stage fright." Afterwards, she started performing regularly at dance parties in Brčko. While a guest on a Croatian television show in March 2014, she was asked if she had been ashamed of having a Muslim background, to which she replied: "Why would I be ashamed? I was and stay what I am. Today I am Fahreta. I am proud of my parents and roots". She said of her stage name, that Brena was given to her by her basketball coach Vlado, while the epithet Lepa (lit. 'beautiful' or 'pretty') was given to her by showman Minimaks.
In early 1980, at the age of 19, Fahreta began singing with a band called Lira Show when the group's original singer Spasa left the band because her husband, a boxer, did not want his wife to be a singer. Saša Popović, the band's frontman, was initially opposed to the idea that Fahreta should be the band's new singer, but later changed his opinion. She subsequently moved to Novi Sad and then to Belgrade. Brena's first performance with Lira Show occurred on 6 April 1980 in the hotel Turist in Bačka Palanka. Lira Show changed their name to Slatki Greh (Sweet Sin) in 1981. Brena and Slatki Greh premiered their first studio album, Čačak, Čačak, on 3 February 1982. The album was written mostly by Milutin Popović-Zahar, and the career-manager was Vladimir Cvetković. Since her career began in 1980, she has become arguably the most popular singer of the former Yugoslavia, and a top-selling female recording artist with more than 40 million records sold. The same year Lepa Brena and Slatki Greh appeared in the first part of Yugoslav classic comedy film A Tight Spot with popular comedian Nikola Simić and actress Ružica Sokić, which raised their status and brought them almost instant fame. They would again team up with songwriter Milutin Popović-Zahar for their second studio album Mile voli disko (Mile Loves Disco), released 18 November 1982. In addition to the title song, the album had a couple of other hit songs: "Duge noge" ("Long Legs") and "Dama iz Londona" ("London Lady"). The album sold in 800,000 copies, becoming one of the best-selling albums in Yugoslavia. In 1983, Lepa Brena and Slatki Greh ended their collaboration with Milutin Popović-Zahar and Vladimir Cvetković. That same year Lepa Brena and Slatki Greh participated in Jugovizija, the Yugoslav selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, with the song "Sitnije, Cile, sitnije". The song was released on an extended play of the same name, along with another song. Their appearance on Jugovizija caused controversy, since the competition was traditionally dominated exclusively by pop artists, and Lepa Brena belonged to a drastically different music genre, which was folk-pop, or also called novokomponovana muzika. Although they did not qualify for the prestigious European competition, Lepa Brena and Slatki Greh gained even more popularity.
1984 saw Brena and her band begin a cooperation with a new manager and producer, Raka Đokić. Bato, Bato (Brother, Brother), their third album, was released the same year. A new provocative image was accompanied by a new musical style, different from the one fostered by Popović. The album sold 1.1 million copies, becoming one of the best-selling albums in Yugoslavia. Later that year, they held a concert in neighboring Romania, at the stadium in Timișoara to an audience of 65,000, what was at time among the most successful concerts of a Yugoslav musician outside their home country. Lepa Brena established a cooperation with Serbian folk star Miroslav Ilić and recorded a collaborative extended play Jedan dan života (One Day of Life, 1985), which featured four songs, including a romantic duet called "Jedan dan života", and the song "Živela Jugoslavija" (Long Live Yugoslavia), which was received with a mixed response. The latter song was in line with Brena's only official political stance: an uncompromising support of a united Yugoslavia, with her becoming a symbol of this view. Their next three albums—Pile moje (My Little One, 1984), Voli me, voli (Love Me, Love, 1986) and Uske pantalone (Tight Trousers, 1986)—would propel her to the throne of the Yugoslav music scene. By the end of 1986, Lepa Brena had become the star of Belgrade social jet-set, and the most popular public figure in Yugoslavia.
Brena's manager Raka Đokić came up with the idea that her seventh studio album should be followed by a film in which she would play the lead role. This idea was successfully implemented in 1987 when the motion picture Hajde da se volimo (Let's Love Each Other) was filmed. The film shared the name with the album. Many then-popular Yugoslav actors co-starred in the film, including Dragomir "Gidra" Bojanić, Milutin "Mima" Karadžić, Velimir "Bata" Živojinović, Milan Štrljić, etc. Based on the success of the original, Hajde da se volimo: Još jednom (Let's Love Each Other: Again) got produced and premiered in 1989. On the premiere of the film, Brena met her now husband, Slobodan Živojinović. The movie was followed by her eight studio album Četiri godine (Four Years). It was released on 1 October 1989 by Diskoton, and contained the hits "Jugoslovenka" (Yugoslav Woman) (with Montenegrin vocalist Danijel Popović, Croatian vocalist Vlado Kalember and Bosnian vocalist Alen Islamović), "Imam pesmu da vam pevam" (I Have a Song to Sing to You), "Jablane" (Poplar Tree), "Igraj dragi" (Dance Dear), both written by Bosnian singer Dino Merlin. The music video for the pop song "Čuvala me mama" (Mum Protected Me) was filmed on the Croatian island Lopud. Music video for her song "Robinja" (lit. 'Slave') was filmed at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The scenes of Brena walking through Istanbul, as well as those filmed in front of Hagia Sophia, for which special permits were obtained, together with the scale of the production and the award that year, contributed to her international recognition and positioned her among notable artists beyond the region. The project marked one of the first occasions on which Brena was presented to audiences with minimal makeup, wearing a costume and a hat designed by Thierry Mugler. The album sold 600,000 units. After even more success, Hajde da se volimo: Udaje se Lepa Brena (Let's Love Each Other: Lepa Brena Is Getting Married) got released, making it a trilogy. It was followed by the studio album Boli me uvo za sve (I Don't Care About Anything). Boli me uvo za sve also had multiple hit songs including "Čik pogodi" (Take a Guess), "Biće belaja" (There Will Be Trouble), "Tamba lamba", and the title track. Lepa Brena and Slatki Greh held more than 350 concerts yearly, and would often hold two concerts in one day. They set a record by holding thirty-one concerts consecutively at Dom Sindikata, and seventeen concerts consecutively at the Sava Centar. Brena's most memorable performance happened on 24 July 1990, in Sofia, Bulgaria, when she landed with a Mil Mi-8 helicopter at Vasil Levski National Stadium, and held a concert with an audience of 122,000 people, making it one of the most attended concerts in the world, at the time. Helicopter she descended on the stage with belonged to Bulgarian leader Todor Zhivkov, which soon became one of the most famous concert entrances in Balkan music history. While she was in Bulgaria in July 1990, she met with the Bulgarian mystic Baba Vanga.
Brena and Slatki Greh released their second-to-last album together, Zaljubiška (ct. Lovelysh), in 1991. In December 1993, after two-year hiatus, Brena premiered her first solo album Ja nemam drugi dom (I Have No Other Home), and held a famous "concert in the rain" on 13 June 1994 at Belgrade's Tašmajdan Sports Centre which was attended by 35,000 people. After that, she recorded two more solo albums: Kazna Božija (God's Punishment), 1994 and Luda za tobom (Crazy Over You), 1996. In the mid-90s she had many popular songs; "Kazna Božija" (God's punishment), "Luda za tobom" (Crazy for You), "Sve mi dobro ide osim ljubavi" (I'm Good at Everything But Love), "Izdajice" (Traitors), "Moj se dragi Englez pravi" (My Man's Acting an Englishman), "I da odem iza leđa bogu" (Even If I Go Behind God's Back), "Ja nemam drugi dom" (I don't have other home), "Dva dana" (Two Days), "Ti si moj greh" (You Are My Sin), among others. The music video for "Ti si moj greh" had an ancient Egyptian theme, with Brena dressed as a pharaoh. It is the Serbian version of the song "Pia Prosefhi" by Elina Konstantopoulou which represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995. Song "Luda za tobom" is Serbian version song "Astatos" by Pasxalis Terzis from Greece. That song is released in 1994. Shortly after Lepa Brena's version, versions of the same song were released in Bulgaria in 1999 (Kamelia – Luda po tebe) and a year later in Poland (Diana – Pójdę za tobą), with the greatest similarities between all versions of the same song being found in the chorus. Later, "Luda za tobom" was adapted in other countries, such as Romania. Brena became co-founder of the Serbian record label Grand Production in December 1998.
