15 Facts About Kemal Monteno

Kemal Monteno was a Bosnian recording artist and singer-songwriter whose career stretched from the 1960s to the 2010s.

Kemal Monteno is widely considered one of the greatest songwriters of the former Yugoslavia.

Kemal Monteno was born to Osvaldo and Bahrija two years later in Sarajevo.

Osvaldo only spoke Italian and sang canzones to Kemal Monteno when he was a child, while his mother sang him Bosnian sevdalinkas.

Kemal Monteno recorded his first song "Lidija" in 1967 and enjoyed a prosperous career in Yugoslavia.

Kemal Monteno is perhaps best known for "Sarajevo, ljubavi moja", which gained a cult following and is considered an evergreen homage to his home town.

Kemal Monteno met his future wife Branka in 1967 in Sarajevo.

Kemal Monteno spent the entirety of the 1990s war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in besieged Sarajevo.

Kemal Monteno was diagnosed with diabetes in the late 1990s and received three-hour dialysis twice a week at the University Hospital Centre Zagreb.

Diabetes weakened his heart and Kemal Monteno felt that the stress of the war in his country contributed to his illness.

Kemal Monteno suffered a heart attack on 30 December 2011 and had bypass surgery in January 2012.

On 15 November 2014, after nearly three years of waiting, Kemal Monteno received a phone call that a kidney was available for transplant.

Kemal Monteno received the transplant the following morning in Zagreb.

Kemal Monteno died on January 21,2015, at Zagreb Rebro Hospital of pneumonia and sepsis.

Kemal Monteno was buried in his hometown of Sarajevo at the Bare Cemetery on 28 January 2015, seven days after his death.