42 Facts About Hanka Paldum

Hanka Paldum was born on 28 April 1956 and is a Bosnian sevdalinka singer and co-founder of the record label Sarajevo Disk.

Hanka Paldum is regarded as one of the best female sevdah performers of the 20th century and is popular in her home country of Bosnia as well as in the rest of the former Yugoslavia.

Hanka Paldum was born in the eastern Bosnian town of Cajnice to Muslim Bosniak parents Mujo and Pemba.

Hanka Paldum's father was a logger and her mother wove carpets to provide additional financial assistance for the family, as her fathers salary was not enough to carry a family of seven.

When Hanka Paldum was seven years of age, her parents moved the family from Cajnice to the Vratnik neighbourhood within the Sarajevo municipality of Stari Grad.

Hanka Paldum started singing in the first grade, as part of the choir in her primary school.

Hanka Paldum would sing for 15 to 20 minutes and run back home.

Hanka Paldum's father allowed it, but with only with the presence of her older brother, Mustafa, who was no less strict than their father.

Hanka Paldum shared the chocolates, while tickets for the theater remained unused because of her father's strictness.

Hanka Paldum's father told her she must enroll in a school that would lead to a secure career with which she could find a job that would earn her money.

Hanka Paldum passed an audition at Radio Sarajevo and began voice lessons.

Hanka Paldum's first recording was her version of an old sevdalinka song called "Moj behare".

Hanka Paldum continued recording and recorded over a hundred sevdalinkas for radio archives.

Hanka Paldum recorded and released her first extended play in 1973, at the age of seventeen, when producer and composer Mijat Bozovic offered her his partnership in recording two singles "Ljubav zene" and "Burmu cu tvoju nositi" alongside the big folk orchestra Radio-TV Sarajevo.

Hanka Paldum recorded five more EP's in two years before releasing her debut studio album, I Loved Unfaithful Eyes on 13 February 1974.

Also in 1975, Hanka Paldum won top prize at the festival of amateur singers called "Pjevamo danu mladosti", with the song "Pokraj puta rodila jabuka", written by Mijat Bozovic.

Hanka Paldum's prize was a chance to produce a single for the record label Sarajevo Diskoton.

Hanka Paldum continued her partnership with Mijat Bozovic, who believed in her talent and that she would become a big folk star.

Hanka Paldum wrote a song for her called "Voljela sam oci zelene" which in a few months became a big hit; for a long time the song was Hanka's signature song, and is still a hit among people of the former Yugoslavia.

However, after the songwriter Julio Maric insisted the song be placed in the competition, Hanka Paldum went on to compete.

Hanka Paldum met her first husband Muradif Brkic, a student of literature at the University of Sarajevo, while she was in high school.

Shortly thereafter, he went to the mandatory service in the Yugoslav People's Army, and Hanka Paldum started her first big Yugoslavian tour with Meho Puzic.

Hanka Paldum was pronounced clinically dead when giving birth to their son, but survived.

Hanka Paldum started singing in Sarajevo alongside Omer Pobric, a gifted and popular accordion player, and by doing so gained vocal and performing experience.

At first Hanka Paldum was hesitant and even Milic wasn't too thrilled about the idea: "I was a bit skeptical at first, but when I heard how Hanka Paldum sang that song; when I felt the power and temperament of her voice, I knew we were going to take over Yugoslavia", Milic said.

Hanka Paldum became recognized across the country of Yugoslavia and was offered to sing in guest spots and hold her own concerts.

Hanka Paldum won many awards and much recognition, including the "Oscar of Popularity", three "Golden Stars", as well as being named the female artist of the year.

Under Nikola Borota's direction, for the first time in Yugoslavian folk music history, electronic music instruments and pop music arrangements were used, songs had different rhythm section treatment than ever before and as a result Hanka Paldum's interpretations were different and original.

Hanka Paldum's work was not received well by music critics, composers and colleagues.

Hanka Paldum started her tour, and for the first time in folk music, held concerts in big sporting arenas across Yugoslavia.

Hanka Paldum had a cameo in the Benjamin Filipovic film Praznik u Sarajevu in a scene with Emir Hadzihafizbegovic.

Hanka Paldum married for the second time to a man named Fuad Hamzic.

When Yugoslavia broke up and went into war, Hanka Paldum spent the entirety of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo between 1992 and 1995.

Hanka Paldum took part in the 16th-night show of Zenica summer fest 2019 by giving 2-hour soloist performance on Zenica city square.

Hanka Paldum was pronounced clinically dead while giving birth to Mirzad, but survived.

Hanka Paldum sent him to a drug rehabilitation center in Germany.

Hanka Paldum kicked him out of her house after this incident saying that her "soul hurted" but she had no other options.

In January 2013, Goran Golub, a Serb former captive in the Silos concentration camp accused Hanka Paldum of torturing him on 10 February 1993 during the Bosnian War.

Hanka Paldum denied the allegations and further stated that she had never even been in Silos during the war.

Hanka Paldum did state that the first time she left the city of Sarajevo during the siege and war was on 6 September 1993, not long after the Sarajevo Tunnel opened.

Hanka Paldum went to the Igman mountain with several singers, one of which was Dino Merlin, to perform for the Bosnian soldiers.

Hanka Paldum filed a lawsuit against Golub's lawyer Dusko Tomic in March 2013 for false accusations of war crimes and torture.