Damir Imamovic Albums

Damir Imamovic Biography

Damir Imamovic (born 1978) is a sevdah master singer and instrumentalist. Born into a family of sevdah musicians in Sarajevo, he has become a trailblazer and well-known representative of the new generation of traditional musicians in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the region.

He has played solo and in different formations, such as his quartet Sevdah Takht, since 2005, and has toured widely in Europe, Asia, North and Central America. "Singer of Tales" is his seventh album. He regularly composes for other artists, theatre and film.

With his SevdahLab programme, he is passionately engaged as a music researcher and educator. This work resulted in the 2015 multi-media exhibition “Sevdah – the Art of Freedom” in Sarajevo. His book “Sevdah”, the first comprehensive history on this musical form, was published in 2016.
On Sevdah
Taking its name from ‘sevda’, the Turkish word for love, derived in turn from the Arabic ‘sawdah’ (melancholy), sevdah has been played in the Balkans in one form or another since at least the 15th century. Often referred to as the ‘Bosnian blues’, its lyrical and musical preoccupations with love, longing and loss provide a bridge to other European traditions, such as Portuguese fado or Greek rembetika.