Silvana Armenulić

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Silvana Armenulić (Born: 1939, Doboj, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina), Died: October 10, 1976, near Kolari, SFR Yugoslavia (now Serbia) was one of the most prominent commercial folk (neo-folk), as well as traditional sevdalinka, singers in former Yugoslavia.

Born Zilha Barjaktarević, she started singing very early. After quickly making a name locally as prominent kafana singer, she moved to capital Belgrade in search of expanded career opportunities. Soon upon arrival she took a stage name Silvana after Italian actress Silvana Mangano and married tennis player Radmilo Armenulić. Her career took off simultaneously and she went on to become one of the biggest commercial folk stars in SFR Yugoslavia. This led to numerous and well publicized country-wide singing engagements, and later still to appearances in popular TV sitcoms like Ljubav na seoski nacin and folksy movies such as Gradjani sela Luga.

Unfortunatelly, her life and career were cut short. In 1976, she died in a car accident along with her pregnant sister Mirjana (Merima) Barjaktarević and violinist and Radio Belgrade folk orchestra conductor Rade Jasarević.