Emina Jahović


Emina Jahović is a Serbian singer-songwriter, model and actress. Born and raised in Novi Pazar, but with Bosniak parents, she rose to prominence through music festivals. Jahović released her debut album in 2002, but acquired commercial success with her third record Vila in 2008. Arguably one of the most popular pop performers in the Slavic-speaking territories in the Balkans, she has been referred to as 'Pop princeza'.
She made her television debut in 2010 starring in Lale Devri as Lale Taşkıran Ilgaz. In 2013, she was a judge on the X Factor Adria. Jahović has also released her own perfume called Closer in 2014 and has her own cosmetic brand Yaemina.

Life and career

1982–1999: Early life

Emina grew up in a Bosniak family in Novi Pazar, the most populous city in the Bosniak-majority region of Sandžak in southwest Serbia. Her mother, Senija Jahović is a paediatrician and her father was a cardiothoracic surgeon. She is the youngest of three children and has an elder sister who is a child psychiatrist educated in Prague and living in Belgrade, Sabina Jahović, and an elder brother, Mirsad Türkcan who is the first Turkish basketball player to play in the NBA.
At the age of seven, she attended primary school "Meša Selimović" in Novi Pazar and started to take classic guitar lessons in Mokranjac Music School. She completed the basic school of music and performed in the choir of her hometown of Novi Pazar and took part in the local folklore section. Following the example of her brother Mirsad, she began her training in basketball when she was in the 6th grade. Regarding this period, it is stated that Emina grew 11 cm in only four months. When she was 13 years old, her father died at age 44. Two years later, Emina was told by her mother to stop playing basketball because she was quite thin.
Whilst in high school, she participated in several theatre performances, including Antigone. She sang the Ana Sofrenović song "Kaži zašto me ostavi" in the play Galeb during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. Similarly, since some of the roles required singing, she realized that singing was her real passion. Prior to this, she always wanted to be an architect.
Emina Jahović received her BA degree in management from the Faculty of Management at Braća Karić "BK" University in Belgrade.

2000–2004: Career beginnings and ''Osmi Dan''

Local and national youth festivals played a significant role for Emina Jahović's early music career.
In 2000, she won the youth festival Zlatna staza in Montenegro with the song "Samo ti, moja muziko". Emina also won Zvjezdane staze and started to work with the composer Igor Perazić and manager Dragoslav Gane Pecikoza who also noticed her potential in 2001. Six weeks later, her debut album Osmi dan was released by Dino Merlin.
In 2003, Emina Jahović won the award Zlatnu zvezdu on the event Oskar popularnosti in Sarajevo. In July of the same year, she participated in the Sunčane skale Festival in Herceg Novi, Montenegro and won two awards. Eliminating 20 candidates, she finished first in the competition Nove zvijezde and received a Zlatnaplaketa. With her song "Uzalud se budim", Emina also took third place in the Sunčane skale's event called Pjesma ljeta among 23 entrants and accepted the Bronzana sirena. This achievement made her one of the most popular artists in the former Yugoslav republics.
She took part at the Sunčane skale festival again in 2004 with the song "Voljela te il' ne voljela". Following the festival, Hari Varešanović, the lead vocalist and composer of the pop rock band Hari Mata Hari, invited her to join him on his headlining concert tour, visiting North America and Europe. The tour consisted of 31 concerts, 21 in Bosnia and Herzegovina and 10 in the United States of America for ex-Yugoslav diaspora communities living in the country.

2005–2007: ''Radije ranije''

In 2005, she released her second album, Radije ranije, for one of the largest Serbian record labels, City Records. It included the songs "Radije, ranije", "Tvoja greška", and the hit "Da l' ona zna" which peaked at number one in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia and reached top ten elsewhere in Southeastern Europe, including number two in Albania and Macedonia. Moreover, she took part in the 2005 Music Festival Budva with the song "Nije više tvoja stvar" and won the award for Best Songwriter. To support the teaching and research of music, Jahović's "Radije, ranije" is one of a few songs to represent European pop music in the list of popular music tracks that are available through the comprehensive audio collection Music Online: Listening - Package of Alexander Street Press, a database publisher in the humanities and social sciences.
In 2006, Jahović won the Radio Hit Award of the Bosnian Grand prix.
In 2007, she was featured on Serbian duo Flamingosi's single "La gitana". The song was a commercial success. The accompanying music video won the award Best Video Clip in the Prince Awards of the festival Sunčane skale in Montenegro.

2008–2010: ''Exhale'' and ''Vila''

In 2008, Emina released her maxi single in English, Exhale, which was completely produced and recorded in New York City under the production wing of Bojan Dugić, the Recording Academy's GRAMMY Awards voting member who worked with such best selling artists as Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Jay-Z, and Jennifer Lopez. The maxi single contained remix tracks by DJs, including Elvir Gazić and Levent Gündüz. The tracks "Push It" and "Push It " featured Cory Gunz, the famous American rapper. The song "Exhale" was also nominated for "World's Best Song" in Worldsings.com's music competition in which the top 20 most voted songs performed in Las Vegas, Nevada for $1,000,000.
On 19 April 2008, the accompanying video for "Exhale" premiered on the MTV Adria show TOP 20 which counts down the biggest videos in the localized version of the music and entertainment channel MTV Europe. Emir Khalilzadeh directed the video. Khalilzadeh also directed the music video for Emina's 2009 song "Pile moje", which was shot in historical places such as Istanbul High School.
In December 2008, she released her single "Još ti se nadam", a duet with the Serbian singer Saša Kovačević. The song was first presented at the Srpski radijski festival in Vrnjačka Banja. Jahović said that she had written the lyrics for "Još ti se nadam" after she had broken up with Mustafa Sandal for a short time in 2006. However, its music was credited to the influential Greek recording artist Mihalis Hatzigiannis. The single was re-released later on in Emina's 2009 album. The video clip of the song was shot on several different locations in Serbia and has been considered to be one of the most expensive music videos in Serbian music history.
In 2009, as a special guest star, she performed the song "Pile moje" at Sunčane skale. Additionally, "Rođeni sa greškom", which is a pop song performed by singers Ana Bebić, Milica Majstorović, and Danijel Pavlović, was written by Emina Jahović in Istanbul, in the studio of her pop star husband Mustafa Sandal who is also a music producer.
On 21 May 2009, Emina's third studio album Vila was released through PGP RTS. She dedicated this album to her late grandfather, Adam. The album was recorded in two years and included songs written and composed by Jahović, except "Ne zaboravi", a song by Aleksandra Milutinović who also worked on Emina's previous albums and "Zver" which was co-written and co-produced by Dino Merlin. The track "Ne zaboravi" featured a back-up vocal by the famous Turkish pop singer İzel. On the album, there is also a duet with Dino Merlin, "Med", which is known as the only song Merlin ever sang that he had not written by himself. The song also won the award for Best Song in the Balkans from Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2009 at the 1st Balkan Music Awards in which Emina was also nominated for Best Female Performer in the Balkans 2009 whereas her song "Pile moje" was among the nominees for Best Song in the Balkans from Republic of Serbia for 2009. It is also mentioned by Emina that the reason why she chooses the name Vila for the album is because she thinks it is one of the best songs she has ever written and that is why she wants people to pay attention to it.
On 25 October 2009, Emina Jahović gave a huge concert at the Sava Centar in New Belgrade, Serbia. Staged in support of her album Vila and comprising a set list of songs from that and her previous albums, she wore 13 costumes during the event and sang her greatest hits. Some of the guests including Saša Kovačević, Jelena Tomašević, and Sergej Ćetković joined her on stage for duets. Among the other guests were the Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, Minister of Foreign and Domestic Trade and Telecommunications, and a close family friend, Rasim Ljajić, Mustafa Sandal, Marija Šerifović, Anabela Đogani, :sh:Milica Milša|Milica Milša, Žarko Jokanović, Dragana Mirković, Hari Varešanović, and Mia Borisavljević.

2011–2012: International collaborations

In 2011, Emina has released two singles, "Gospodine" and "Posle mene". Both was published by City Records d.o.o. "Gospodine" was written and composed Emina herself. This song was released as a duet with the famous singer Nataša Bekvalac on International Woman's Day which is marked on 8 March. "Posle mene" was premiered on 22 July 2011 on Prva Srpska Televizija's famous late-night talk show Veče sa Ivanom Ivanovićem whereas the other guest of the show was the Deputy Prime Minister Rasim Ljajić. The music video for the song "Posle mene" was shot in the summer of 2011, in Göcek, Fethiye. The video was directed by Miloš Nadaždin.
On 29 November 2011, she was named Person of the Year by HELLO! Srbija and received the trophy, designed by Karim Rashid, which is also awarded to 23 other celebrities at the event held in Beli Dvor, a part of the Royal Compound. On 16 December 2011, the ceremony aired on RTV Pink.
The song "Broken" that is recorded by the popular Turkish producer and disc jockey Erdem Kınay with vocals from its co-composer Emina Sandal, has been released in March 2012 following Emina's Valentine's Day special "Beograd priča" featuring Dženan Lončarević, which was published on 14 February 2012. This song was off the Erdem Kınay album Proje and was written by the New York-based Turkish-American singer S. Derin Togar. After monitoring the international record market in 2012, the editors of the Eurodanceweb chose Emina Sandal and Erdem Kınay's work "Broken" as the most interesting dance track for Turkey. The selected Turkish entry "Broken" was then voted by a professional jury of disc jockeys, journalists, producers, radio speakers and webmasters of popular websites and music blogs; yet, Belgium won the 2012 Eurodanceweb. In 2006 Eurodanceweb Award, Emina was chosen Bosnia and Herzegovina's singer of the year, with the song "Živeo". Collecting a total of 80 points in the international music competition, she placed thirteenth out of 40 countries.
In December 2012, Emina's second Turkish single and first solo single in Turkish, "Kimse Yok Mu?", was recorded by Doğan Music Company. The song was written and composed by Emina Jahović and Mustafa Sandal. The lyrics revolve around Emina asking a man to go back to her. The Serbian version, "I da mogu", which peaked at number one in such Southeast European countries as Bulgaria, was also made available in 2012. Miloš Nadaždin directed the accompanying music video. Jahović is often referred to as the Turkish JLo since critics noted costume references and artistic similarities to the work of Jennifer Lopez. "I da mogu" is the second best-selling single of Serbia in 2013 and peaked at number two in the chart "TOP 10 singlova" of City Records.
As of 2012, due to her association with the record label Croatia Records, Emina is the first non-Croatian whose works are broadcast on CMC which is the largest Croatian music channel and broadcast only Croatian music and music of Croatian production.
During the year 2012, Emina also collaborated with Hamza Haimami, the Moroccan-born dancer, creative director, and choreographer known for his work with Rihanna as well as with artists including Fergie, Katy Perry, Usher, will.i.am, and the Pussycat Dolls. Jahović has also worked with Marko Peruničić and Nebojša Arežina's songwriting and production team called Atelje Trag Group which has also collaborated with artists, including Jelena Karleuša and Lepa Brena.

2013–present: Upcoming album and ''X Factor Adria''

On 27 January 2013, a Name the Song contest was held to choose a name for Emina's soon-to-be-released 2013 single. Over hundreds names were submitted via Facebook and Twitter and the top two were chosen. These names were "U senkama isti" and "Ne plašim se". Fans were then asked to vote on the name they thought would be best for the song with over 73% of the votes being cast for "U senkama isti" according to poll contest's results published on 31 January 2013. The song was also written and composed by Emina Jahović. Addressing her fans in Serbian language Emina wrote on Twitter, "You are my source of inspiration and part of my love for this business," and she added, "You are my associates and friends. Thank you all..."
On 27 February 2013, Emina Sandal won the 3rd Media Awards of OMU for Best Breakthrough Album. The 3rd Media Awards of OMU were held at the Atatürk Congress and Culture Center in Samsun. It is the first official music award that Sandal won in Turkey.
In April 2013, she released her single "Nedostaješ". The song was written and composed by Emina Jahović herself. The Accompanying music video for the song was directed by Vedad Jašarević. Arranged by Seçkin Özer and produced by Samsun Demir, the Turkish version of the song is known as "Yakışmaz". The lyrics to this song was written by Deniz Erten. Released in May 2013 through Doğan Media Company, "Yakışmaz" is Emina Jahović's third single in Turkish language. The lyrics of the pop-flamenco song revolve around the theme of love and grief. On 2 June 2013, Emina Jahovic performed her song "Nedostaješ" on RTV Pink's VIP Room 2013 at Elite Model Look final in Serbia.
On 4 June 2013, she premiered "Žena zmaj" on Ami G Show, a late-night talk show of RTV Pink. The song was composed and written by Emina Jahović herself. The upcoming album that also includes "Žena zmaj" is planned to be released by in June 2013. To promote this album, it is scheduled that Jahović will attend the CMC Festival Vodice 2013. She will be the first artist from Serbia to appear as a special guest at this festival that will held on 14–15 June 2013 in Vodice, Croatia. Claiming that Emina is a genuine regional star and a great musical talent, Nikolina Mazalin, the organizer and creative director of the festival, noted that it is actually why Croatia Records decided to promote Emina's new album in Croatia.
In September 2013, Emina Jahović was announced as the official judge and coach of X Factor Adria. The reality singing competition premiered in October 2013.
In 2017, she collaborated with Serbian singer Milica Todorović, on the single "Limunada", which was another success becoming Serbia's summer hit.

Artistry

Musical themes and voice style

Originally marketed as a teen pop singer on late 1990s and early 2000s, Emina is known for blending R&B with schlager music. Reviewers identifies Emina's pieces of music as mainly belonging to pop music genre; however, among fusion and subgenres that her music is referred to as are traditional pop, teen pop, synthpop, soft rock, power pop, pop rock, indie pop, glam rock, Europop, Euro disco, electropop, easy listening, disco house, deep house, dance-pop, Britpop, bebop, and ballad.
The constant theme in Jahović's music and lyrics is love, although she has written on other subjects including grief. Considering her vocal agility and endurance, Emina's voice is likely to be classified as mezzo-soprano with a warm lower register and an agile high register. Emina Jahović's distinct style of singing has been praised by her colleague Jelena Karleuša whose husband, Duško Tošić, also lives in Turkey.

Public image

Emina is widely known as "Pop princeza". However, she is sometimes referred to as "Pop diva" and "Srpska diva". As a result of her album Vila, Serbian media also gave her the nickname of "Balkanska vila".
Emina Jahović is quite popular across the entire area of Former Yugoslavia and all around Eastern Europe. She is also known in such regional countries as Iran for her protagonistic role in Omre Gole Laleh and is widely recognized amongst the diaspora communities of the Former Yugoslavia in the Western Europe, United States, Australia, and Canada.
In his column for WIRED, the American science and technology magazine published by Condé Nast, Bruce Sterling described Emina Jahović Sandal as "neo-Ottoman diva".

Eurovision Song Contest

Bosnia and Herzegovina

In 2002, she participated in the Bosnian Eurovision pre-selection BH Eurosong with the Dino Merlin song "U, la-la" and received an award at the Radijski festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the Eurosong semi-final she collected a total of 61 points, placing fourth out of sixteen entries. She ended up placing fifth in the final.

Serbia

On 19 February 2010, Emina Jahović competed in Tri pa jedan za Oslo, the then new version of Evropesma and Beovizija and the national selection for Serbia's representative at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, in which 10 artists took part in preliminary auditions. These 10 artists subsequently were reduced to three by a RTS committee on 25 January 2010 and Jahović, as well as Milan Stanković and Oliver Katić, was among the three final artists nominated to represent the country in the competition in Norway. Emina's entry "Ti kvariigro" was composed by Goran Bregović and written by Marina Tucaković.
Each year Jahović has been consistently mentioned among the front-runners to represent the country in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Humanitarian work

Being one of the highest paid artists from the Balkans, Emina Jahović Sandal is involved in various philanthropic and charitable activities.
Emina Jahović is the official face of the HRH Crown Princess Katherine Humanitarian Foundation's Campaign to Fight Against the Breast Cancer. Jahović was announced the face of the health campaign on 7 October 2009 at the White Palace by Crown Princess Katherine of Yugoslavia who is the titular pretender Queen consort of Yugoslavia.

Other ventures

Acting career

Between 2010 and 2011, she was cast in the leading role as Lale Taşkıran Ilgaz in Lale Devri, a Turkish television primetime soap opera that airs on FOX. The series debuted on Show TV. Also airing in syndication in more than 30 countries around the world, Lale Devri was broadcast under the name Polje lala on RTV Pink in the Balkan Peninsula. In Azerbaijan, the series is called Lalə Dövrü and Emina's role is known as Lalə Ilqaz Kamal qızı. Emina Jahović rose to fame in the Arab World where the series Lale Devri, under the name ثورة التوليب, was aired by Middle East Broadcasting Center and Dubai TV. Similarly, Kazakh El-Arna television's Пора тюльпанов helped Emina get recognized as an actress by the Central Asian audience.
Later in 2012, Emina and Mustafa Sandal were featured in the TV commercial Akıllı Telefon Hareketi for Turkcell, which aired throughout the year in order to promote the Turkish multinational telecommunications company's smartphone revolution.
In February 2013, Turkcell unveiled its second TV commercial featuring the Sandal couple, Maxi'yi Alan Yaşadı.
In 2016 she became a judge on Rising Star Turkey.

Modeling

Since her debut, she has been the face of a variety of advertising campaigns. Standing almost 5 feet 11 inches tall, Emina Jahović is an official face of Fabrika and Kara, Turkish and Macedonian fashion labels respectively. Citing devotion to her family, she once rejected an offer from the most prestigious lingerie company in Turkey because she feared it could tarnish her brother's image in the country. Emina Jahović is also famous for having long legs that are 122 cm of outer length and 112 cm of inner length. She was featured on the cover of numerous European magazines such as Cosmopolitan Serbia, Elele, Lepota i zdravlje, Maxim, Women's Health, Hafta Sonu, Mother and Baby, HELLO!, etc.
Throughout December 2010 Emina Jahović Sandal documented her daily fashion and style choices for Vogue Türkiye official website Vogue.com.tr's popular sartorial section called "Today I'm Wearing"—"Bugün Ne Giydim?" feature in Turkish. Additionally, the 2013 Dosso Dossi Fashion Show that took place on 9 January 2013 featured performances by Emina Sandal while Adriana Lima was walking the runway.

Personal life

Apart from her native Bosnian, Jahović speaks English and Turkish fluently. She also speaks a bit of Bulgarian, and Slovenian.

Marriage and children

Having been married on 13 January 2008 in Hôtel Les Ottomans à Istanbul to the famous Turkish singer Mustafa Sandal whom she met in July 2004 in Bodrum, Muğla, she has two sons and lives between Belgrade and Istanbul. The couple's first child, Yaman, was born by Caesarean section in Istanbul on 8 August 2008. On 26 July 2011, the Sandals announced that they were expecting their second child in the winter. On 21 February 2012, Emina Sandal gave birth at the American Hospital to a baby boy, Yavuz. The couple's children speak both Turkish and Serbian. The couple divorced in 2018, citing irreconcilable differences.
Due to the marriage, Jahović acquired Turkish citizenship in 2012.
Her sister-in-law was Dina Džanković, the Istanbul-based interior architect and fashion designer who is the last beauty queen to have the title of Miss Serbia and Montenegro.

Discography

;Studio albums