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Artist
Zeljko Samardzic
12+ albums
serbianex-yubalkanAllpop
about
Samardžić was born in Mostar, at the time part of PR Bosnia and Herzegovina, in FPR Yugoslavia. His father Milivoje was an ethnic Montenegrin, and his mother Nada was a Herzegovinian Croat from the Ilići suburb of Mostar. Samardžić's father was a Yugoslav People's Army officer, which meant that the family had to move around a lot. After spending the first seven years of his life in Mostar, young Željko lived and attended school in Nikšić, Igalo and Zadar before eventually returning to Mostar during his teenage years. He first started singing during high school, and soon became known around Mostar as a good Kemal Monteno impersonator. Samardžić's musical activity during this period was essentially little more than a hobby as he did not put out any official releases and mostly sang in kafanas and restaurants in addition to competing in the occasional obscure festival. The closest he came to wide mainstream success was a schlager "Moja Marija je drugačija" that became a hit in Bosnia during the 1970s after he performed it at Prvi aplauz festival in Banja Luka, but he mostly earned his living running a café in Mostar, located in proximity of the famous Old Bridge. When the Bosnian War broke out in 1992, Željko was wounded sitting in his apartment while chaotic fighting was raging outside. A stray bullet entered his leg and exited his hip. After much trouble, along with his wife and their daughter, he managed to flee the city through the Croat-controlled western part of Herzegov
