Emina Jahović

**Emina Jahović** (Serbian Cyrillic: Emina Jahović, pronounced [emǐːna jâːhovit͡ɕ]; born 15 January 1982), recently also known as just **Emina**, is a Bosnian-Turkish singer-songwriter, actress and businesswoman. Born and raised in Novi Pazar, she rose to prominence through music festivals. Jahović released her debut album in 2002, but acquired commercial success with her third record *Vila* in 2008. Arguably one of the most popular pop performers in the Slavic-speaking territories in the Balkans, she has been referred to as "Pop princeza" (*Pop Princess*).

Between 2010 and 2014, she starred as Lale Taşkıran Ilgaz in *Lale Devri*. Jahović also served as a judge on the first season of the *X Factor Adria* in 2013 and the second season of the *Rising Star Turkey* in 2016. She released her own perfume called *Closer* in 2014 and founded beauty brand, *Yaemina Beauty*, in 2020. Emina is a recognized style icon both in Serbia and Turkey and has been featured in magazines such as *Cosmopolitan Serbia*, *Elele* and *Vogue Türkiye*.

Between 2008 and 2018, she was married to singer Mustafa Sandal with whom she has two sons.

## Life and career

### Early life

Emina Jahović was born on 15 January 1982 in Novi Pazar to a Muslim Bosniak family. Her mother Senija who worked as a paediatrician and father Nusret who was a cardiothoracic surgeon. She has two older siblings, including NBA player Mirsad Türkcan. Emina lost her father at the age of thirteen. She started attending music school during middle school and took theatre lessons in high school. Jahović eventually received a bachelor's degree in management from the Braća Karić University in Belgrade.

### Career

She began her career by competing at regional music festivals and has won at the youth festival Zlatna staza in Montenegro with "Samo ti, moja muziko" (*Only You, My Music*). Emina then rose to prominence upon her debut album *Tačka* (*Enough*) in 2002, which was released under Dino Merlin's record label. Jahović in 2004 joined pop-rock band Hari Mata Hari on their tour across Bosnia and Herzegovina and North America, performing for Yugoslavian diaspora. Her sophomore album, *Radije ranije* (*Rather Sooner*), was released through City Records in 2005. It saw significant success with hit-songs such as "Da l' ona zna" (*Does She Know*). Same year she was also declared the songwriter of the year at the Pjesma Mediterana festival in Budva.

In 2007, Emina collaborated with Serbian duo Flamingosi on "La Gitana" (*The Gypsy Woman*). The single's accompanying music video was awarded at the Sunčane skale festival in Montenegro. The following year, she released her first single in English, titled "Exhale", which was completely produced and recorded in New York City under the production wing of Bojan Dugić (aka Bojan "Genius" Dugic), the Recording Academy's Grammy Awards voting member who worked with such best selling artists as Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Jay-Z, and Jennifer Lopez. The maxi single contained remix tracks by DJs, including Elvir Gazić and Levent Gündüz. The tracks "Push It" and "Push It (Remix)" featured Cory Gunz, an American rapper.

On 19 April 2008, the accompanying video for "Exhale" premiered on the MTV Adria show *Top 20* which counts down the biggest videos in the localized version of the music and entertainment channel MTV Europe. Emir Khalilzadeh directed the video. Khalilzadeh also directed the music video for Emina's 2009 song "Pile moje" (*My Dear*), which was shot in historical places such as Istanbul High School.

In December 2008, she released her single "Još ti se nadam" (*I'm Still Hoping for You*), a duet with the Serbian singer Saša Kovačević. The song was first presented at the Serbian Radio Festival in Vrnjačka Banja. Jahović said that she had written the lyrics for "Još ti se nadam" after she had broken up with Mustafa Sandal for a short time in 2006. However, its music was credited to the influential Greek recording artist Michalis Hatzigiannis. The single was re-released later on in Emina's 2009 album. The music video for the song was shot on several different locations in Serbia and was considered to be one of the most expensive music videos in Serbian music history.

In 2009, as a special guest star, she performed the song "Pile moje" at Sunčane Skale. Additionally, "Rođeni sa greškom" (*Born With a Mistake*), which is a pop song performed by singers Ana Bebić, Milica Majstorović, and Danijel Pavlović, was written by Emina Jahović in Istanbul, in the studio of her pop star husband Mustafa Sandal who is also a music producer.

On 21 May 2009, Emina's third studio album *Vila* (*Fairy*) was released through PGP RTS. She dedicated this album to her late grandfather, Adam. The album was recorded in two years and included songs written and composed by Jahović, except "Ne zaboravi" (*Don't Forget*), a song by Aleksandra Milutinović who also worked on Emina's previous albums, and "Zver" (*Beast*), which was co-written and co-produced by Dino Merlin. The track "Ne zaboravi" featured a back-up vocal by the famous Turkish pop singer İzel. The album also featured a duet with Dino Merlin, "Med" (*Honey*), which is known as the only song Merlin ever sang that he had not written by himself. It is also mentioned by Emina that the reason why she chose the name *Vila* for the album is because she thought the title track was one of the best songs she had ever written and that was why she wanted people to pay attention to it.

On 25 October 2009, Emina Jahović held a concert at the Sava Centar in New Belgrade, Serbia. Staged in support of her album *Vila* and comprising a set list of songs from that and her previous albums, she wore 13 costumes during the event and sang her greatest hits. Some of the guests including Saša Kovačević, Jelena Tomašević, and Sergej Ćetković joined her on stage for duets. Among the other guests were the Minister of Labour and Social Policy and the close family friend Rasim Ljajić, Mustafa Sandal, Marija Šerifović, Anabela Đogani, Milica Milša, Žarko Jokanović, Dragana Mirković, Hari Varešanović, and Mia Borisavljević.

### 2011–2012: International collaborations

In 2011, Emina has released two singles, "Gospodine" (*Sir*) and "Posle mene" (*After Me*). Both were released by City Records. "Gospodine" was written and composed Emina herself. This song was released as a duet with the famous singer Nataša Bekvalac on International Women's Day which is marked on 8 March. "Posle mene" was premiered on 22 July 2011 on Prva Srpska Televizija's famous late-night talk show *Veče sa Ivanom Ivanovićem* whereas the other guest of the show was the Minister of Labour and Social Policy Rasim Ljajić. The music video for the song "Posle mene" was shot in the summer of 2011, in Göcek, Fethiye. The video was directed by Miloš Nadaždin.

On 29 November 2011, she was named Person of the Year by *Hello! Srbija* and received the award, designed by Karim Rashid, which is also awarded to 23 other celebrities at the event held in Beli dvor, a part of the Royal Compound. On 16 December 2011, the ceremony aired on RTV Pink.

The song "Broken" that is recorded by the popular Turkish producer and disc jockey Erdem Kınay with vocals from its co-composer Emina, has been released in March 2012, following Emina's Valentine's Day special "Beograd priča" (*Belgrade Is Talking*) featuring Dženan Lončarević, which was published on 14 February 2012. The song was featured on the Erdem Kınay's album *Proje* and was written by the New York-based Turkish-American singer S. Derin Togar. After monitoring the international record market in 2012, the editors of the Eurodanceweb chose Emina and Erdem Kınay's work "Broken" as the most interesting dance track for Turkey. The selected Turkish entry "Broken" was then voted by a professional jury of disc jockeys, journalists, producers, radio speakers and webmasters of popular websites and music blogs; yet, Belgium won the 2012 Eurodanceweb. At the 2006 Eurodanceweb Awards, Emina was chosen Bosnia and Herzegovina's singer of the year, with the song "Živeo" (*Cheers*). Collecting a total of 80 points in the international music competition, she placed thirteenth out of 40 countries.

In December 2012, Emina's second Turkish single and first solo single in Turkish, "Kimse Yok Mu?" (*Nobody*), was recorded by Doğan Music Company. The song was written and composed by Emina Jahović and Mustafa Sandal. The lyrics revolve around Emina asking a man to go back to her. The Serbian version, "I da mogu" (*Even If I Could*), which peaked at number one in such Southeast European countries as Bulgaria, was also made available in 2012. Miloš Nadaždin directed the accompanying music video. Jahović is often referred to as the "Turkish J.Lo" since critics noted costume references and artistic similarities to the work of Jennifer Lopez. "I da mogu" is the second best-selling single of Serbia in 2013 and peaked at number two on the "Top 10 singlova" chart of City Records.

As of 2012, due to her association with the record label Croatia Records, Emina is the first non-Croatian whose works are broadcast on Croatian Music Channel, which is the largest Croatian music channel and broadcasts only Croatian music and music of Croatian production.

During the year 2012, Emina also collaborated with Hamza Haimami, the Moroccan-born dancer, creative director, and choreographer known for his work with Rihanna as well as with artists including Fergie, Katy Perry, Usher, Will.i.am, and the Pussycat Dolls. Jahović has also worked with Marko Peruničić and Nebojša Arežina's songwriting and production team called Atelje Trag Group which has also collaborated with artists such as Jelena Karleuša and Lepa Brena.

### 2013–present: Upcoming album and *X Factor Adria*

On 27 January 2013, a Name the Song contest was held to choose a name for Emina's soon-to-be-released 2013 single. Over hundreds names were submitted via Facebook and Twitter and the top two were chosen. These names were "U senkama isti" (*The Same in Shadows*) and "Ne plašim se" (*I Don't Fear*). Fans were then asked to vote on the name they thought would be best for the song with over 73% of the votes being cast for "U senkama isti" according to poll contest's results published on 31 January 2013. The song was also written and composed by Emina Jahović. Addressing her fans in Serbian language Emina wrote on Twitter, "You are my source of inspiration and part of my love for this business," and she added, "You are my associates and friends. Thank you all..."

On 27 February 2013, Emina won the 3rd Media Awards of OMU for the Best Breakthrough Album. The 3rd Media Awards of OMU were held at the Atatürk Congress and Culture Center in Samsun. It is the first official music award that Emina won in Turkey.

In April 2013, she released her single "Nedostaješ" (*You're Missed*). The song was written and composed by Emina Jahović herself. The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Vedad Jašarević. Arranged by Seçkin Özer and produced by Samsun Demir, the Turkish version of the song is known as "Yakışmaz" (*Unsuitable*). The lyrics to the song were written by Deniz Erten. Released in May 2013 through Doğan Music Company, "Yakışmaz" was Emina's third single in Turkish language. The lyrics of the pop-flamenco song revolve around the theme of love and grief. On 2 June 2013, Emina Jahovic performed her song "Nedostaješ" on RTV Pink's VIP Room 2013 at Elite Model Look final in Serbia.

On 4 June 2013, she premiered "Žena zmaj" (*Dragonwoman*) on *Ami G Show*, a late-night talk show of RTV Pink. The song was composed and written by Emina Jahović herself. The upcoming album that was set to include "Žena zmaj" was planned to be released by in June 2013. To promote this album, it was scheduled that Jahović would attend the CMC Festival Vodice 2013. She was be the first artist from Serbia to appear as a special guest at the festival that was held on 14–15 June 2013 in Vodice, Croatia. Claiming that Emina is a genuine regional star and a great musical talent, Nikolina Mazalin, the organizer and creative director of the festival, noted that that was actually why Croatia Records decided to promote Emina's new album in Croatia.

In September 2013, Emina Jahović was announced as the judge and coach on the first series of *X Factor Adria* alongside Željko Joksimović, Kristina Kovač and Kiki Lesendrić. The reality singing competition aired on RTV Pink between October 2013 and March 2014. Also in 2014, she released *Metemorfoza* (*Metamorphosis*) under City Records, which was sold in 100,000 copies becoming her best-selling album to date.

At the beginning of 2018, Jahović released her fifth album, titled *Dalje* (*Further*), through IDJTunes. The album was preceded by the lead single "Limunada" (*Lemonade*) featuring Milica Todorović in August 2017, which became a summer hit and has accumulated over 75 million views on YouTube.

## Artistry

### Musical themes and voice style

Originally marketed as a teen pop singer on late 1990s and early 2000s, Emina is known for blending R&B with schlager music. Reviewers identifies Emina's pieces of music as mainly belonging to pop music genre; however, among fusion and subgenres that her music is referred to as are traditional pop, teen pop, synthpop, soft rock, power pop, pop rock, indie pop, glam rock, Europop, Euro disco, electropop, easy listening, disco house, deep house, dance-pop, Britpop, bebop, and ballad.

The constant theme in Jahović's music and lyrics is love, although she has written on other subjects including grief. Considering her vocal agility and endurance, Emina's voice is likely to be classified as mezzo-soprano with a warm lower register and an agile high register. Emina Jahović's distinct style of singing has been praised by her colleague Jelena Karleuša whose husband, Duško Tošić, also lives in Turkey.

### Public image

Emina is widely known as "Pop princeza" (*Pop Princess*). However, she is sometimes referred to as "Pop diva" and "Srpska diva" (*Serbian Diva*). As a result of her album *Vila*, Serbian media also gave her the nickname of "Balkanska vila" (*Fairy of the Balkans*).

Emina Jahović is quite popular across the entire area of Former Yugoslavia and all around Eastern Europe. She is also known in such regional countries as Iran for her protagonistic role in *Omre Gole Laleh* and is widely recognized amongst the diaspora communities of the Former Yugoslavia in the Western Europe, United States, Australia, and Canada.

In his column for *WIRED*, the American science and technology magazine published by Condé Nast, Bruce Sterling described Emina Jahović Sandal as "neo-Ottoman diva".

## Humanitarian work

Being a high paid artist in the Balkans, Emina Jahović Sandal is involved in various philanthropic and charitable activities.

Emina Jahović is the official face of the HRH Crown Princess Katherine Humanitarian Foundation's Campaign to Fight Against the Breast Cancer. Jahović was announced the face of the health campaign on 7 October 2009 at the White Palace by Crown Princess Katherine of Yugoslavia who is the titular pretender *Queen consort of Yugoslavia*.

## Other ventures

### Acting career

Between 2010 and 2011, she was cast in the leading role as Lale Taşkıran Ilgaz in *Lale Devri*, a Turkish television primetime soap opera that airs on FOX. The series debuted on Show TV. Also airing in syndication in more than 30 countries around the world, *Lale Devri* was broadcast under the name *Polje lala* on RTV Pink in the Balkan Peninsula. In Azerbaijan, the series is called *Lalə Dövrü* and Emina's role is known as Lalə Ilqaz Kamal qızı. Emina Jahović rose to fame in the Arab World where the series *Lale Devri*, under the name *ثورة التوليب*, was aired by Middle East Broadcasting Center and Dubai TV. Similarly, Kazakh El-Arna television's *Пора тюльпанов* (tr. *Pora tulpanov*) helped Emina get recognized as an actress by the Central Asian audience.

Later in 2012, Emina and Mustafa Sandal were featured in the TV commercial *Akıllı Telefon Hareketi* for Turkcell, which aired throughout the year in order to promote the Turkish multinational telecommunications company's smartphone revolution.

In February 2013, Turkcell unveiled its second TV commercial featuring the Sandal couple, *Maxi'yi Alan Yaşadı*.

### Modeling

Since her debut, she has been the face of a variety of advertising campaigns. Standing almost 5 feet 11 inches (180 centimeters) tall, Emina Jahović is an official face of Fabrika and Kara, Turkish and Macedonian fashion labels respectively. Citing devotion to her family, she once rejected an offer from the most prestigious lingerie company in Turkey because she feared it could tarnish her brother's (6 ft 9 in) image in the country. Emina Jahović is also famous for having long legs that are 122 cm (4 ft 1 in) of outer length and 112 cm (3 ft 8 in) of inner length. She was featured on the cover of numerous European magazines such as *Cosmopolitan Serbia*, *Elele*, *Lepota i zdravlje*, *Maxim*, *Women's Health*, *Hafta Sonu*, *Mother and Baby*, *HELLO!*, etc.

Throughout December 2010 Emina Jahović Sandal documented her daily fashion and style choices for *Vogue Türkiye* official website Vogue.com.tr's popular sartorial section called "Today I'm Wearing"—"Bugün Ne Giydim?" feature in Turkish. Additionally, the 2013 Dosso Dossi Fashion Show that took place on 9 January 2013 featured performances by Emina Sandal while Adriana Lima was walking the runway.

## Personal life

Apart from her native Serbian, she claims to speak English and Turkish fluently, and a bit of Bulgarian and Slovenian.

When she was 17, Jahović married a fellow Novi Pazar resident Aladin Đulović. However, they divorced only six months later when Jahović's father-in-law Rustem Đulović opposed to her ambitions to become a professional singer.

On 13 January 2008, Jahović married the singer Mustafa Sandal whom she met in July 2004 in Bodrum, Muğla. Their first child was born in Istanbul on 8 August 2008. The couple also welcomed their second son on 21 February 2012. Emina acquired Turkish citizenship in 2012. She eventually divorced from Sandal in 2018.

## Discography

Studio albums
* *Tačka* (2002)
* *Radije ranije* (2005)
* *Vila* (2009)
* *Metamorfoza* (2014)
* *Dalje* (2018)