About Damir About Damir

"Damir renews tradition from within! "

Music Meeting Festival, Nijmegen

"A true revolutionary of the genre! "

www.sevdalinkas.com

"…a new take on Balkan blues! "

Guardian
Growing up in a family of sevdah bards, Damir was immersed in the world of Balkan traditional music at a very young age. He started tracing his own path in sevdah in the early 2000s, prompted by his friendship with the writer and editor Farah Tahirbegović, also a singer in the band “Dertum”. In 2006 he recorded his first album, followed by concerts in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the region of former Yugoslavia. His tours have taken him from different corners of Europe to China, USA, India, Japan and Mexico. He has worked with musicians such as Eric Vloeimans, Greg Cohen, Derya Türkan, Ivana Đurić, Bojan Z, Vlatko Stefanovski, Ivan Mihajlović, Nenad Kovačić, Vlado Kreslin, Jadranka Stojaković, Frenkie, Jelena Popržan, Vasil Hadžimanov, and producers Chris Eckman ("Dvojka", Damir Imamović Sevdah Takht, The Glitterbeat Records, 2016) and Joe Boyd & Andrea Goertler ("Singer of Tales", Damir Imamović feat. Greg Cohen, Derya Türkan & Ivana Đurić, Wrasse Records, 2020). Damir received numerous international awards for his work. Among others: "The Best of Europe" (Songlines, 2021), "The best European Album" (Transglobal list, 2019/2020), "The best of folk" (German Association of music critics: Bestenliste 3/2020).
Damir’s art is deeply rooted in his research & educational work. Apart from his performances, Damir teaches within his own SevdahLab project. In 2015, he curated a multimedia exhibition “Sevdah, the art of freedom” at the National Gallery of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The following year, he published the first history of the genre of sevdalinka - “Sevdah” (Vrijeme, 2016, also available in English). He won several local and international awards and recognitions for his writing for theatre, film, video games and other media.
A select list of interviews and reviews: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/may/18/damir-imamovic-sarajevo-bosnian-singer-sevdah https://www.huffpost.com/entry/meet-damir-imamovic-the-k_b_8194264 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/05/damir-imamovics-sevdah-takht-dvojka-review
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